Japan Part I : Tokyo and Nikko

I arrive in Tokyo Narita airport after an 11+ hour flight from London so not quite bright eyed and bushy tailed! Getting through the airport is easy and quick but the journey into Tokyo by bus takes an hour and a half – it’s a huge city but it’s raining and the sky is grey so I don’t get to see much. There’s a typhoon on its way so luckily I’ve landed ahead of the bad winds. I’m hoping Megan and Molly are as lucky as they’re arriving later this evening. Time for a couple of hours sleep at the hotel before the girls get here.

By 8pm the girls have arrived without any delays or drama and we’ve stumbled upon a really cool little restaurant where we have sirloin steak (cut very thin and looking like a giant rasher!) cooked at our table, noodles, rice, local veggies and wine…. hooray – let the holiday begin!

Tokyo is on the main island of Honshu, that’s also where Kyoto and Osaka are. There are hundreds of other islands but the main ones are Honshu, Haikado (to the north and the one that just had the recent earthquake), Kyushu (to the south, I’ll be there in a couple of weeks) and Okinawa (way further south, not going there!). So that’s the end of the geography lesson! Oh, one more thing, Tokyo used to be called Edo.

The typhoon passed over Tokyo as we slept, or tried to sleep and we are ready to start our first days adventure. We have a guide for the day who starts by helping us activate our JR passes (Japan Rail) and gets us acclimatized to our local surroundings. Our first train journey is just as you’d imagine rush hour in Tokyo…packed trains, squashed with locals (of which there are 13 million by the way) and tourists!!

We head for Asakusa to visit the Sensoji temple, which is the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan. We get a great view from the 6th floor of Starbucks and then head along the line of shops before hitting the temple….. and buying a kimono of course!

There is also a five story pagoda that allegedly holds some ashes of Buddha (not sure I’m buying that!):

Next to the Buddhist temple is a Shinto temple. Shintoism is the main religion in Japan, although it’s not really a formal religion and is very flexible in whats considered a God. It’s more about being at one with nature and worshiping anything that may bring happiness and goodness to the world. Both Shintoism and Buddhism have coexisted together happily for centuries. (There’s a lesson to be learnt there). We say a prayer by bowing twice, clapping twice, making the prayer (or wish) and then bowing once again.

For lunch we have our first bento box at a local restaurant. It has a variety of sushi and cooked fish and vegetables. It’s family run and the food is really tasty. After eating, we are entertained with some traditional music. The instrument they play is called the shamisen and it’s a three stringed banjo type instrument. It was very entertaining, for the fifteen minute show 😀

After lunch it’s time to board another train and visit Shibuya which has the largest pedestrian intersection, I think, in the world. It’s hard to capture how insane the number of ways to cross is, add to that a large volume of people and you can imagine how crazy it gets, today wasn’t too busy:

From here we head to the Meiji Jingu shrine which was built in honor of the Emperor Meji and is considered Japan’s most important Shinto shrine. Emperor Meiji was a particularly important leader of the country as it was under his reign that Japan opened up to the international world having previously been isolated from foreign countries. Built in 1922, it’s not very lavish but beautiful in its simplicity – as with most Shinto shrines. The approach to the shrine has beautiful Torii gates and is surrounded by pretty trees and gardens:

Our next stop is Cat Street in the Harajuku neighborhood. This area is known for it’s fashion and quirky style. There are lots of interesting stores selling vintage clothes and other quirky stuff

We finish the tour at Ginza and check out Ginza 6 which is a large department store / shopping mall with an amazing food court in the basement and a fabulous bookshop called Tsutaya Books on the top:

The sun sets by 5:30pm this time of year so it’s already dark at 6 and we’re ready for drinks and grub. The guide has recommended a yakatori restaurant which is essentially chicken on a stick, so we set off to find it, looking forward to a rest after our busy day. The restaurant looks really nice but is empty except for a couple of Japanese men. We sit down and order drinks and although the waiters don’t seem to speak much English we are handed an English menu which seems promising. There’s a list of food on the menu including gizzards, chicken neck and other such delights but luckily there’s chicken breast, wing and thigh so we decide to order that. When we attempt to order the food, we hit a bit of a stumbling block and are told we can only order 5 sticks with the chicken parts we really don’t want to eat! There’s a lot of back and forward to try to order from the list they’ve put in front of us but it’s not working. Megan tries talking through the google translator app and the English translated response from the waiter reads “maybe you should go home!”. We are in fits of laughter, assuming he’s trying to convey something else but the mood quickly turns very uncomfortable. We suggest we pay for our drinks and leave as we’re unable to order food from the menu but that doesn’t go down well. One of the waiters, with some limited English, tells us we must pay for food and hands us a bill for over $50, double the amount of our drinks. We try to explain that we’re not happy to pay for food that we can’t order and are not willing to eat and apologize for the miscommunication. It’s really hard to understand what’s being said but the staff (all men by the way) appear to be making a laugh of us – they’re huddled giggling on the other side of the room. One guy pipes up and says he’s calling the police and we can’t leave… WTF!!!!!! We try to reason with them but apparently we are being “lude”, sorry, rude but alas I think in this situation (and I really hope it’s not the norm) they are being quite rude to us. After leaving money for the drinks on the table, we eventually get up and walk out. I want to run in case they shout after us but they don’t even come to the door… calling the police my arse!!! I’m not the better of the incident and have completely lost my appetite so we go back into Ginza 6 for a glass of wine and a plan b. After a long time walking around we finally find a tempura place which allegedly appears in a Michelin guide to Tokyo. It’s surprising based on its location and decor but the food is good, albeit a very small portion, and the staff are lovely so we’re happy out. We end the night with a cocktail at the Peninsula hotel bar which has a view of the city.

Next day we take a trip, approximately 120km north of Tokyo, to the mountainous area of Nikko. We are visiting Toshogu which is a UNESCO world heritage site consisting of Shinto and Buddhist shrines built in the 1600’s as a mausoleum to shogun Tokugawa. The small town is cute with rows of cedar trees flanking the streets and the day is warm but not roasting. We stop at a cute bridge where the water is usually calm but today is gushing after the typhoon (we didn’t see a bit of that rain!) :

And then continue to see a row of seventy Dosojin which are statues placed in various places around the country, especially near mountains, temples and bridges. They are said to be the protector of travelers and pedestrians. I hope we see more of them on our travels

We then visit the imperial villa where the Emperor and his family used to go on their summer holidays! It’s very peaceful, surrounded by beautiful gardens. It’s very simply decorated with its size being the only lavish thing about it.

From here we enter the national park and monument area:

There are approximately a dozen shrines and temples situated among trees and lush greenery. We see the affects of the recent typhoon with broken trees and leaves around the area and start to make our way through Torii gates to the shrines.

There are carvings of the original “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkeys:

And a beautiful pagoda:

We say a prayer at a match making shrine and Molly and I follow a ritual which involves walking a particular way through an arch – no harm I reckon! More beautiful shrines…

And finally, the main man himself the shogun:

We say goodbye to our guide and grab some lunch before boarding the train back to Tokyo. It’s a 2 hour journey – one hour on the Shinkansen and one on the regular train. It’s definitely the right time for a nap which I’m only too happy to do! This evening we hit the Shibuya neighborhood:

The streets at night have that distinct Tokyo look with bright lights, big advertising screens and huge cross walks. We also see the Tokyo Tower which lights up bright at night:

We check out another shopping centre food court which is amazing and then find a bar for a drink and a restaurant for some food. Tonight it’s the turn of shabu shabu which is essentially cooking your meat, noodles and veg in a pot of boiling broth at your table. It’s very entertaining and not bad for all you can eat… mind you, our waiter is not impressed at our inability to eat more!!

We check out a karaoke club on the way home but in Japan (home of karaoke) it’s done in private rooms that you rent out and sing with your friends, not in a bar with an audience.. alas not really my thing! Unfortunately it doesn’t look good for singing a song in Japan but you never now! For now it’s time to say goodbye to Tokyo and move south in the morning to Kyoto.