On arriving in Japan our first move was to jump onto the luxurious and impressive Shinkansen (bullet train) to get from Osaka to Tokyo. We were scheduled to use a number of these trains throughout a two week whirlwind tour of Japan. This was great news as I think this is the most enjoyable high speed train I’ve ever journeyed on. The Japanese terrain is what makes the experience as you are continuously going up and down mountains or entering long banking turns to avoid them. You can often feel yourself being smoothly pressed into your seat as the train rockets along.
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| The bullet train |
The train was also our first lesson in Japanese quirkiness and efficiency. Instead of a gruff Dublin accent saying ‘stand clear of the doors’ you get a jingle straight out of a Nintendo game to let you know when the train is arriving or leaving. The jingles are different for the various cities, train lines etc. Also, when you arrive at your station you need to get off the train! If you’re not ready to go by the time the train pulls in you will miss your stop.
We had booked a hotel in the Tokyo suburbs and one of the first things I saw when we got out of the station was a game of baseball in full flow. This is one of the joys of Japan, there is baseball everywhere. Claire was more interested in finding the hotel so off we went and got checked in to our Garden Inn. Hotels in Japan are, well, better. We were in the Japanese equivalent of a Bewley’s Inn or a Best Western but the room featured our own pyjamas and a toilet that you would need to go on a course to operate (amongst other nice touches).
A quick word on the toilets of Japan, they really are a bit much. Don’t like sitting on a cold seat; no problem you can set it to your desired temperature. Prefer a different sitting height; just electronically adjust it. Enjoy privacy in the bathroom; the speakers automatically play the sound of running water when you go about your business. Want a little shower afterwards, just press a button. Prefer a different water pressure or temperature for your shower, just press some more buttons.
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| It's like the Starship Enterprise in here |
So we hadn’t even left our hotel at our first destination and already we were fascinated by this country. We had arrived late in Tokyo and hadn’t eaten all day so we asked our front desk for a recommendation. They sent us down the road to a great local restaurant but unfortunately nobody spoke our language and we certainly didn’t speak theirs. Using the guide book we managed to get out a “please order for us” request. A short time later we were tucking into raw chicken legs, breasts and necks. Surprisingly this was actually delicious and the sauces and accoutrements provided were incredible. It’s called Sashimi and was the first in our list of Japanese foods.
The following day we headed into Tokyo proper and went straight to a tall building to orient ourselves. The government offices kindly provide a free observation deck, so up 54 floors we went to see a city that goes on and on. After checking out the world’s largest pendulum and some funky architecture we thought some greenery was called for and visited the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen (Gyoen is park). We were so relaxed that we missed the Ireland v’s USA rugby game and by the time we got out of there and found a pub we only caught the last 10 minutes.
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| Tokyo View - east |
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| The world's largest pendulum |
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| Funky Atrium |
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| Park Life |
We grabbed a quick refreshment to catch the end of the game and headed out into the teen fashion district of Harajuku. This place is full of girls (and boys) dressed as Little Bo Peeps, French maids, goths, Red Riding Hoods, teddie bears and all kinds of other weird manga character type stuff. It’s incredibly cute, hilarious, strange and disturbing all in one go. We weren’t brazen enough to ask the actresses/actors for some photos so you’ll have to take our word for it – worth a visit if you’re ever in Tokyo.
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| Takeshita Street, Harajuku's main shopping street |
If Harajuku is the kooky fashion district then Shibuya is the high street powerhouse. This is where the famous ‘busiest street crossing in the world’ is located and there are a lot of shops here. Claire was besotted with the Shibuya 109 mall. There’s also a famous meeting point in this district beside the statue of a dog (I don’t know why). Unfortunately Shibuya wasn’t as lit up as it usually is due to electricity shortages in Japan but it still looked pretty cool when the sun went down.
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| Meet you at the dog |
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| The world's busiest crossing |
We went to an Udon restaurant in this part of town to try our next Japanese food type. These noodles are finger thick tubes that come served in a brothy soup. We got some tempura (a type of batter – battered onion in this case) on the side and we were good to go. This shop was right next door to a place that sold Paris Hilton dogs in little boxes in a window; a cute puppy shop where we did some after dinner browsing.
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| How much is that doggy in the window?? |
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| Big Spiders... |
A grand sumo tournament was being held while we were in Tokyo so we decided to take a half a day to go and have a look. We combined this with a visit to Senso Ji, one of Japan’s most visited temples which is in the same neck of the woods. The temple/shrine was both beautiful and a lot of fun. You can get your fortune there by shaking a box of marked pencils in a drum and reading the sheet of paper associated with the pencil that comes out. Claire shook us out a good fortune, woohoo! We also purified ourselves with the spring water that comes out of the temple and breathed in a whole bunch of incense.
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| Shake It!! |
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| Purification of hands and mouth |
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| Burning incense to purify your soul |
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| We found the Streets of Rage subway (or was it Double Dragon)? |
Later, at the sumo, we saw some incredibly fat blokes and discovered the Japanese love of pantomime type ritual. The sumo fighters always square off against each other 3 times before they actually start a fight each time going back into their corner and getting salt to throw or wiping their armpits with little towels. To us this was incredibly boring after the first few times but the local’s love it. They cheer and coo as if it was surprise that they actually weren’t going to engage each other in battle and they just love the faces and gestures that the fighters make as they return to their corners. My favourite part of the sumo experience was our first steps out into the arena where Claire just blurted out ‘oh my god – he is soooo fat’; she wasn’t wrong.
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| Fat guy versus super fat guy |
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| Opening ceremony for top division wrestlers |
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| The Yokozuna (Grand Champion) enters the ring |
The day after the sumo we decided to visit the Tsukiji Fish Market which is the largest in the world. It starts with a tuna fish auction at 5am but unfortunately we were in a different part of town and our first train was at 5:15 so we got there about 6ish. Here we saw the fish that fills Tokyo’s many restaurants being fork lift loaded onto trucks and hack sawed up for smaller traders. There was also a restricted area where you couldn’t see into – we’re guessing there was a whale in there..
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| Tuna's topped & tailed |
Browsing all that seafood made us hungry so it was time for a sushi breakfast. Sushi is a huge deal in Japan, so much so that the locals will make their way down to a fish market (which is out of the way) and queue in throngs just to go to the most fashionable sushi bar. Now, food here was way beyond our budget but I still can’t figure out how raw fish can taste that much better in one place than another. We found another less glamorous alternative tucked away in building 7 of the market and had an amazing breakfast.
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| 6:45am - tokyo - fashionable sushi bar |
Our sushi breakfast plate included Yellowtail, Tuna, Abalone, Squid, Shrimp, Salmon, Salmon Roe, Sweetened Egg and a couple of bits we never figured out. This was washed down with a delicious shrimp miso soup and some green teas. It was unbelievably tasty, even at 7am in the morning (except for the squid which was gross).
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| Yummi Sushi |
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| There's something fishy about this miso soup |
A day is much longer when you start it at 5am so we left the fish market ready to explore. We went to Sony Headquarters, visited the Imperial Palace and gardens and took a tour of some Tokyo museums (great displays & info, fantastic Rodin collection). All the while we were taking in the different districts of Tokyo with their interesting themes. For example there is a district dedicated to cookware and every second shop sells knives, spoons, pots, crockery etc. They have an electric town for gadgets, a nightlife area and so on.
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| The perfect solution to a 5am start |
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| Sony HQ |
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| Imperial Palace - East Garden |
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| Tokyo Museum - Contemporary Section |
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| Kitchen Knives in the knives district |
We crammed quite a bit into our 4 days in Tokyo and there were a couple of sneaky power naps indulged in. Still it was worth every minute of sleep deprivation to be awake in this city. We can’t wait to go back! We left the big T on a bullet headed for a change of everything to climb some Japanese alps…
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| Sumo Slumber |
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| Imperial Garden Snooze |
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| Awesome |
