We arrived very late after a long day travelling, we wasted some time to get our Japan Rail pass from the station and the train from Narita airport took over one hour. We then got lost in Shinjuku station trying to get to our train to Nishi-Shinjuku, and once we finally got to our Airbnb at 8pm, the keys in the locker with a code got stuck since the code didn’t seem to work… we were so tired, so cold and so desperate I was about to start weeping! But after trying many times, Bruce finally got us in thank God! We then had a quick dinner nearby (our first Japanese dinner!) and then bed time ready to start exploring Tokyo tomorrow! Bruce was also very happy to find some squid in the local 7 Eleven!
Tokyo Day 1
Early start, out of the flat at 8am to visit Tsukiji market. This the biggest fish market in the world, with 2000 tonnes of fish being traded every day. Thank cod we got there early, such a busy plaice. There is an outer and an inner market, the inner is where most of the action happens while the outer is where restaurant accessories and sauces are mainly sold. The inner market was an amazing experience, we saw some huge fish, some crazy types we never saw, we saw guts and heads of fish in buckets, live octopus, sea snakes, sea urchins, huge crabs, you name it… Everything was very clean still and in order. All the sellers are working hard, all wearing wellies to walk around, and all stalls have a hose to clean the floor and the fish and they are not too keen on tourists getting into their way. We got there towards the end so we only had some funny looks but not too many. You still have to be careful they don’t run you over with their fast driving little machines (like forklifts). Apparently it’s much more hardcore if you get here at 4am for the tuna auction.
We had a wonderfully tasty sashimi salmon breakfast in the heart of inner market and a big basket of snowcrab from Alaska. We then had a second breakfast in one of the outer market sushi bars with sushi, sitting at the counter watching them prepare the sushi at fast speed. Very tasty and fresh, and fascinating to watch the art of sushi making after having seen the art of fish cutting and trading at the market. The restaurant we picked was at random but it got filled up very very quickly, while we saw others that had a 2 hrs queue. (Sushi Dai etc)
After breakfast number two we had a lovely and romantic walk in the Hamarikyu gardens, beautiful views of the city over the river, nice lakes and breathtaking cherry blossoms. It was so amazing and we’ve been so lucky to get to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. It’s just like I was hoping it would be, if not better. It’s so special when the wind comes and the petals start to fall, it looks like pink snow coming down and it creates a beautiful path / rug on the floor near the trees. It’s like being in a beautiful painting. It’s hard to stop taking photos.
We had a walk around and Brucey grabbed a quick lunch on the way to Shimbashi station to go to Akihabara (Akiba). I was too full from the several breakfasts but Bruce got a fast food of fried squid, edemame and fried dumplings which was also super tasty, because everything seems to be here even fast food is incredibly good quality!
We arrived in Akihabara, the manga and anime area and again we were shocked and amazed by what we saw around us… We got a map of the area, and we started wandering in this crazy part of Tokyo, full of random shops, markets, and buildings full of videogames and prize games and Patchinko which is a very famous game that men play here – in all the rooms there is a super loud noise (like a fan) which we didn’t know what it was. We later found out that it is made on purpose to confuse people and make them fall into a sort of trance from which they don’t easily get out of and they end up staying there playing for hours. Kyoko mentioned to us that sometimes parents leave their kids in the car and run in one of these rooms to have a quick game, but they end up staying too long and the kids (especially in the summer when it’s too hot) end up having to go to the hospital or even die.
We stopped and played a few games (some shooting and one round at Tekken 7 although it was against a motionless enemy since we pressed the wrong button as all instructions were in Japanese) in Taito building. It’s a 5 floors building where elevators can only go up, there are no windows and everyone can smoke inside and the exits are well hidden. It was fun and interesting to explore initially but I then started to get claustrophobic and wanted to get out at all costs. We then had another walk around get to @home cafe with fancy dress maid hostesses and a HUGE queue of male teens with creepy looks waiting to be served by lolita style dolls.
We then got back to Shinjuku to try and catch the sunset at the Tokyo Metropolitan government building, we ended up having sunset in the queue but luckily it wasn’t too long and we got up when it was still quite light before it got pitch black. It was great to see the different lights from above (45 floors up), and it felt very Lost in translation from up there, watching the never ending city at 360 degrees.
When we got down we met with Alex Murray (a school friend of Bruce’s who he hasn’t seen since he was 16, which was 23 years ago to be exact!), we had dinner with him in Shinjuku at a pub style restaurant which are called Izakaya. We initially entered the restaurant next door to it by mistake, Alex asked in Japanese (which he speaks since he’s been here for 15 years and has a Japanese wife and two kids) for our reservation and got seated but we then double checked and found out it wasn’t the right place. Alex mentioned that they would never tell you no here, and they sat us even if we didn’t have a reservation! After a nice and tasty dinner during which Alex told us the story of how he got here 15 years ago for the football World Cup and never left, we had a couple of drinks in the “piss alley” in a tiny teeny bar full of chandeliers – Bruce and Alex had Japanese whisky and I had a potato liquor which taste like vodka but much less strong called ShoChu which here they drink in large glasses with ice.
We got back at midnight after a long but amazing day, and 16km walked.
Day 2
We left the flat at about 11am since we went to bed at 2am last night and were destroyed, especially me with a cold/cough and my unsexy tranny voice.
The station was our first stop, to book and reserve all our train tickets for the coming days. We were amazed by the efficiency of the JR station, the queue was impressively quick, and the woman that helped us literally took about 3 minutes to book our 9 tickets, she printed and repeated them all one by one. It was just fascinating to watch, and we are starting to learn that Japan is possibly the most efficient country in the world, even more than Germany.
After that we went to Shinjuku Gyoen park, where thousands of people (almost only locals, like everywhere here there is always 90% Japanese) came to have a picnic since it’s Sunday lunch time, and it’s cherry blossom! It was amazing to see how they celebrate the blooming of the cherries, and be part of it for a weekend. So lucky that we got here
in the two weeks of the cherry blossoms.
After a stroll and a rest in the park we had a quick Spanish tapas lunch near Shinjuku station in one of the big malls, and made our way to the Harajuki area. Here we walked a lot, and got lost in the underground fashion streets, fascinated by the people and their outfits and their coolness which made us feel like losers with our travel gear and uninteresting clothing.
Cat street (cat stands for catwalk, not cats which is what Brucey was hoping to find here as we miss Jenkins terribly!) was full of quirky shops and hipstery (border line pretentious) looking types with some art galleries and interesting vintage/used clothes shops. Surprisingly not many beards though.
Takeshita street is the teenagers pop street which is basically the Camden of Tokyo, but with added cartoon / fancy dress / dolly lacey type of shops and of course its customers, the dolly Lolitas and the more goth Lolitas.
Lastly Omote Sando road, less interesting but still worth a look, where all the big names are including Dior, Vuitton etc like the Sloane Street of Tokyo, all in glass buildings with contemporary architecture.
It’s amazing how you could spend your entire day there watching people and their outfits and try to imagine their personalities… There are more than 30 fashion tribes in Tokyo, and since the Japanese attention to detail is renowned, you can
imagine how interesting it makes the casual people watching. It made us think for the first time that London is actually almost boring compared to Tokyo!
At 5:30pm we started making our way to Ginza (another 5th avenue type of area) where we had a nice posh dinner booked at 7pm at Tsukuji Dai Bekkan (recommended by Kyoko, thank you very much for booking for us!). We arrived in the small road of the restaurant tired and hungry after the long walks of the day. The place was quite small, with only Japanese signs so we weren’t sure we were in the right place… We asked twice and they seem to say we were in the right place and had our reservation. We were in a small room with only 8 seats, all around the counter where one chef was making sushi for the 8 of us, all in front of us. they served us a welcoming huge sea snail which was quite disgusting but nevermind. We got a sushi set with 11 different pieces (but it was actually more) and of course a bottle of bubbles (cava) to go with because it had to be done right.
We ate one piece at a time, as they were served. They were all so carefully prepared, and all so tasty. Each one had different sauces and spices, one was flambe, and it was such an amazing experience to taste them one by one with the chef explaining them and telling us when and when not to use soy sauce and Teaching us that every piece needs to be eaten at once and allowing us to use our fingers if we made a mess with the chopsticks. It was the best sushi we’ve ever had.
The bill was £40 each, but worth every penny. The place fits maximum 16-20 people and it needs booking. We were the only westerners, and as always it was a great sign. Pure joy for the tastebuds and open all night long.
After dinner we came back to Shinjuku and explored the East side this time, and wandered around
some of the nightlife best spots.
My favourite was Golden Gai, a series of small alleyways with super tiny quirky bars (some foR locals only unfortunately and most of them with a high entry fee charge).
I liked less Kabukicho, the red light district, big streets full of restaurants and bars as well as red
Light clubs and filled with insistent people that want to bring you to their bar and keep asking you what you’re looking for when all you want is wander around.
We ended up stopping back at Golden Gai at Champion bar for a couple of beers and saw a bit of karaoke action both western classics and some Japanese performances too.
Destroyed and tired we then walked home at midnight. The health app says 18km but our feet are convinced it’s more! Tomorrow we check out from our Airbnb and move to Yokohama where we will be staying with Kyoko’s parents.
Day 3
We woke up at 9am after going to bed at 3am… Packed our stuff as we had to leave our little airbnb today and we are going to stay for three days at Kyoko’s parents.
We met with Kyoko in Tokyo station, and we were a bit late since we underestimated how long it would take us with our big luggage to get there from Nishi-Shinjuku Gochome.
It was great to meet Kyoko, she has already been so helpful with us and we finally found out the connection she has with Bruce’s family! She with her parents and brother and sister moved to Surrey and did all her secondary school in England, and when they were there they were taught English by Sarah – Bruce’s aunt and Juliet’s (Brucey’s mum) sister.
We had soba (buckwheat) noodles with buckwheat tea and shrimp tempura in one of the malls in Tokyo station. Very tasty! We then met with Kyoko’s mum and started queuing to get our tickets for the Kabuki at 13:50. Once again the organisation of the queuing was impressive. As you arrive they sit you down on benches in order of arrival, they then open the ticket counter at exactly 13:50:01 and as you pay for your ticket you get a number, we were 14th to 17th in the queue. You then have half an hour in which we got a nice coffee and had a look at the shop and you then have to get back and get into position, they line you up by number, and as you enter the theatre in order you can grab the best seats depending on your order of arrival. We got very good sits at the front of our row (which was the one at the very top for cheap last minute tickets for 1 act only).
The act lasted one hour, and the main actor was apparently very famous, a lot of people were shouting his name as he acted and got applauded a lot. It was a comedy and it was very fun and very interesting to watch, never seen anything like it. The story was very similar to some of the ancient greek comedies, a man that want to meet up with his lover and his wife is always in the way, finally he convinces her to leave him a free night to go and meditate. He tells his servant to cover him as he goes to meet his lover, and the wife discovers it and she takes the place of the servant before the husband gets back. As he gets back he starts discussing about his lover to the servant, until he finally figures out that it was his wife he was talking to! Very interesting make up and voices, and the clothing was also very impressive. Definitely a must if you come to visit Tokyo! We also had a ipad type translator which worked really well to keep up with the story.
After the Kabuki we walked towards the imperial palace of Tokyo but the main part was closed as it’s Monday. We then slowly walked back while admiring the beautiful Tokyo Station and the surrounding impressive building of the financial “city”, and also spotted a pretty pond with swans in which made an interesting contrast with the rest of the modern landscape.
It was 5pm and we made our way to Yokohama, picked up our luggage which we left in storage and went to Kyoko’s parents place which are kindly hosting us for three nights. Once arrived we left our luggage and went with them and with Kyoko and her sister Yuko and her parents Takayoshi and Takako for dinner at a very nice Chinese restaurant which is their favourite in Yokohama. They ordered their favourites and we ate so much and so well! We tried to offer the meal but we couldn’t as they have been so nice they wanted to offer us at all costs to return the favour that Sarah did a long time ago. We owe a thank you to Sarah as well as them for a fantastic meal and for this great hospitality. They have been so kind and welcoming to us, we will never forget and we hope to return the favour by convincing them to come and visit us in Milan!
Day 4
The day strated with a nice treat from Takako, Kyoko’s mum who made us a delicious breakfast with parma ham, bread and a healthy salad with steamed broccoli which I was really craving after all the restaurant food! She also tried to teach us some new Japanese words. Brucey’s favourite is Shizukane which means “shut up!” and my favourite answer was “da me!” Which means NO! The irony is that it’s normally him who never shuts up! Takako is very good at telling him when it’s too much, so she said “time is up!” when we had to leave, which really made us laugh.
We then met with Kyoko towards the station and she brought us to see Shibuya. On the way there we had to stop to find a portable wifi, and ended up renting one as we couldn’t find a sim card that worked. Not the cheapest option (fiver a day) but it works really well and the battery lasts all day. The Shibuya crossing was really impressive, and we got to walk in all different directions while taking photos and got hypnotised by all the screens and signs. Kyoko then brought us to a very beautiful exhibition of the uyoki style, during the Edo period this woodlock paintings were very popular. The paintings were so beautiful and it was especially interesting to see it after we went to the Kabuki yesterday since some of the artworks represent the actors characters, their make up and dresses and even the life behind the scenes. This collection is normally kept in Boston museum, and it was great to be able to see it so thanks Kyoko once again for bringing us here!
We then wandered around until we found a nice Ramen spot where we had another delicious (oyishi – another word we added to our vocabulary) lunch with Kyoko.
After lunch we got the train back to Yokohama, where Kyoko was going to show us around. We stopped for a quick coffee (and cookie) to recharge the batteries and then walked in the Yokohama business buildings city, stopped in one of the malls to skype Hazel and Sam and Monty (lovely to see you all, we miss you!) and then had a nice walk in the sun and in the wind on the “future harbour” as they call it, where massive boats are parked and had a walk in the nice parks surrounding the port. We then had a walk through China town and walk all the way to the baseball stadium which is also surrounded by a very nice park full of colourful tulips. All parks and gardens are so beautiful here, I know my mum would love it as she is a big fan of gardening and flowers. Everything and everywhere is so neat and clean, I wish every country in the world could learn more from beautiful Japan on this aspect, and also on the efficiency levels!
We then went to Kyoko’s place for a nice cup of tea before heading to the restaurant for our Yakitori which made Hazel very jealous when we told her since she’s been here before. We loved the food here, it’s Kyoko’s local and her favourite and we can see why… My personal favourite was the quail egg skewer (somehow they manage to boil the exterior of the egg but inside the yolk is liquid – it’s SO delicious / oyishi) and the fried rice cake with eggplant, and the tomato wrapped in pork… Every one of the different skewers we had was so delicious though, it’s hard to name a favourite. After dinner we said goodbye to the lovely Kyoko, who was a pleasure to meet and it was a real treat to spend some time with her as our guide and great company. We really owe you, and hope to return the favour and hospitality in Milano or London or Oxford very soon. Thanks for all the nice chats as well, and for teaching us about Japan and sorry for the too many questions! Kyoko’s mum had also joined us for dinner and we came back with her at home, where Yuko also joined for the night. We saw a great old video feauturing the young Jacksons Andrew and Timothy (here everyone calls you with your full name Tim and we couldn’t resist!), had some nice show cho offered by Takayoshi and also a bit of sake. At midnight we heard our usual “time is up!” Kind nudge and got to bed. Thank you to all the Koshiro family for another amazing day. We are really grateful and would be honoured to return the favour and hope you will come and visit us soon.
Day 5
Another delicious breakfast was ready for us at 8am – thank you so much Takako and Takayoshi for feeding us and preparing us such treats, and thanks Yuko for staying over night and for having breakfast with us on your day off!
After breakfast Yuko helped us finding our way to Yanaka, where we went for a nice walk to see the old buildings that survived from the new constructions in Tokyo, some cemeteries, shrines and wooden temples as well as beautiful flowers, trees and gardens (as everywhere in Japan, each garden is full of beautiful details). The old was mixed with the new, with views of the sky scrpaers such as the SKyTree and with contemporary art galleries with interesting installations.
We particularly liked a vintage shop selling all sorts (called Expo) , where we ended up buying some presents for the family and I got a nice headband that I then wore for the rest of the day.
Our walk ended at the sunset steps, where we realised it was time for lunch and conveniently we found a very well rated Indian restaurant called Darjeeling (for a change) which had amazing decors all coming from India. Very tasty and the owner was also very interesting, he lived in Tokyo for 35 years and spoke Japanese, Hindu, English and Spanish. Who would have thought that a brain can contain that much information!
After lunch we made a move towards Yoyogi park to go and see the Mejijingu Shrine in the forest. Another great park to walk around, we’ve seen a few in the last week and we liked each one a lot. It’s worth spending a fair amount of time in parks in Tokyo, as they are all very beautiful – especially during cherry blossom. We got a bit lost, and at some point it started to rain but nothing spoiled the great view of the beautiful shrine, and I loved reading all the wishes that people left on the sacred trees, some of them actually made me cry (I could only read the ones in English of course, but there was something special that touched me about seeing so many wishes from so many people all together and written down on a piece of wood under a beautiful tree). Before leaving we picked up a message from the shrine, you have to turn upside down a box full of Shangai type of sticks each with a number. Only one comes out of the box and you have to tell the number to the counter where they give you one of the poems that the old emperor wrote, that should allegedly say something to you. This is what Bruce got, and this is what I’ve got:
After the shrine we suddenly got really tired, maybe because we already walked 17km by that point (which is still half of what la mamma walked today!) and we stopped for a beer at a British pub near Yoyogi park station. We then decided to have food before heading back to Yokohama, and we found a Kobe beef place nearby called Charcoal Cuisine Ikuta . It was SO tasty! You can choose the different cuts of beef that you want, and you cook it for yourself in a mini barbecue on your table. It’s amazing, and one of our favourite meals so far! Not cheap though even though we got the cheaper cuts – (Kobe Chateaubriand was 9000 yen for 100 grams!). Destroyed and ready for bed we got back to Yokohama at 10:30, and Takako was already sleeping so we felt very very sorry to wake her up to get back inside. We went to bed tired and happy having had another great day.
Our last breakfast in Yokohama at the Koshiro’s was delicious and it was so nice to catch up with them before we left, Takayoshi also showed us the game called GO that he is very good at, and Takako told us one more time that “time is up”. They also very kindly walked us to the station where we got our train to the Yokohama Shinkansen, to head to Odawara and eventually Hakone to hopefully see Mount Fuji and try the Onsen. Thank you SO MUCH, Arigato Gozaimasu to Kyoko, Yuko, Takako and Takayoshi for being the most hospitable, kind and friendly hosts we feel very lucky to have met you and will be forever grateful of everything you’ve done for us. Thanks Sarah / Hazel for putting us in touch, we owe you too!
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