Japan – Day 2 to 4
Tokyo is huge. Mind blowingly huge. And dense. With a lot of people. Very friendly people. At one point I asked a lady at a train station information booth for directions to a cafe. She got out of the booth and walked me the three blocks there, to my protest once I realised what was happened but she was adamant on getting me to my destination.
This cafe I may add was a popular filter coffee destination set in the style of a tea house. The barista would even meticulously spend time choosing a particular cup and saucer from shelving spanning the whole wall for each drink.
After meeting up with a friend who had just recently moved to Tokyo, we set out in search of some lunch. We ended up at a neighbourhood ramen restaurant. The term restaurant in this sense only really applies to the fact that food was served and there was seating. No bigger than my hotel room, seating was limited to a bar that wrapped around the kitchen where a sole person dished out the biggest bowl of ramen I had ever seen. Food was ordered by a ticket vending machine next to the door which you handed to the chef. Many restaurants in Japan were like this – both small and single person operated, as well as the use of vending machines for ordering. Speaking of vending machines, hot and cold drink vending machines are on pretty much every street corner, train station platform, in fact pretty much anywhere there’s unused space.
Nearby was the Tokyo Sky Tree which my friend hadn’t actually been up yet so that’s we headed. Previously the tallest tower in the world before Dubai’s Burj Khalifa was completed, it boasts panoramic views of Tokyo and beyond from two observation decks, with the higher being at 450m. This is an incredibly popular attraction in that we had to wait in line for nearly an hour and a half just for tickets to go up. By time we got to the top it was just before sunset and we were greeted with a stunning view of the vast concrete jungle that is Tokyo with the backdrop of a silhouette of Mount Fuji and a colorful sunset which slowly appeared.
I should probably mention at this point how I’m getting around. Tokyo has a stupidly giant metro system with both “official” JR lines as well as privately operated lines and stations that all interlink. The trains and stations, like the rest of Japan, are huge and many have shopping malls attached. Side note, there’s a lot of underground shopping malls in general. Trains are often fourteen or more carriages long and run pretty regularly throughout the day. Payment is via either paper ticket or one of a few different contactless smart card systems that operate around the country. The major train line that I used most of the time is the Yamanote line which runs big loop around all the major suburbs.
Our next stop was the famed Akihabara “electric town” district. A maze of multi-storey shops with bright flashy signs and lights hanging out onto the street, similar to Hong Kong and other major Asian cities’ shopping streets. Anything you can possibly imagine that’s electronic or technology related is available, at cheap prices and from multiple neighbouring stores. I took this opportunity to get some mains plug adapters as the USA ones I had didn’t actually fit in Japan because of an extra pin.
I was also introduced to Japan’s gambling concept – Pachinko. A typical poker machine room but the machines are an interesting combination of a vertical pinball machine around a poker machine screen. Apparently gambling is illegal/heavily regulated so instead you win metal balls which can be exchanged for prizes and not cash. There are also game shops which have dozens of those claw prize games.
Dinner approached and we found a nice looking restaurant in a multi-storey building that only had restaurants. One is spoilt for choice in pretty much anything in Japan. This restaurant, as it happened, didn’t have an English menu. Or a picture menu. After a mini session of miming and Google Translate with the bartender who knew a little English we ending up with quite a tasty selection of sashimi, fried chicken, what I’m guessing was beef sukiyaki (a sweet soy-based sauce) and a dessert tasting plate of gelato, cheesecake and brownie. Quite a fun and exciting experience.
The next day I went on a morning tour of the main highlights of Tokyo – the Tokyo TV tower, imperial palace (side note, many major cities in Japan have an imperial palace), Ueno park and the Asakusa shrine. The shrine was a real treat with masses of people paying their respects, I’m guessing due to the end of year celebrations. I also found a popular little bakery nearby which specialised in freshly baked traditional sweet bread, naturally with a queue.
As I continued to discover on my trip, popular restaurants, etc. will almost always have a queue out the front and all hours of the day. In fact, my stop for lunch this day was at a gyoza (dumplings) restaurant which has the reputation of some of the best gyoza in all of Tokyo. I waited in line for a whole hour. For lunch. But it was worth it.
The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the areas of Harajuku and Shinjuku on foot. I found a maze of laneways in Shinjuku filled with tiny yakitori (skewers) restaurants, just like the ramen restaurant of my first day, many seating barely half a dozen people. I met some Finnish backpackers who needed directions and we ended up at one of the yakitori restaurants where were enjoyed a mid afternoon snack and a beer. Side note, asking for just “a beer” at many places will you get a 700mL or 1L bottle.
The foodie in me is always in search of good food and I treated myself with a degustation dinner at the New York Bar and Grill at the top of the Park Hyatt on the 50-something-th floor. Dinner with sweeping views of the city at night is always a wonderful experience. The adjoining bar had some live jazz playing and was the set of a scene from the movie Lost In Translation.
My final day was pouring rain and I decided to go on a cafe crawl. Good coffee seems to be lacking in Japan so this was a bit of an exercise but I found a few roastery cafes in the Shibuya area. One of them even knew of one my local hangouts in Melbourne, Proud Mary, which was surprising and we then proceeded to have a mini cupping session. As mentioned before, the Japanese are very friendly. And apologetic, even if it isn’t their fault.
Lunch was at the popular ramen restaurant, Ichiran, in Shinbuya. The good old ticket vending machine made an appearance along with a queue outside. They took a novel approach of an ordering checklist sheet allowing complete customisation of the ramen, from the firmness of the noodles to the richness and spiciness of the sauce. This resulted in a tasty dish that upheld the restaurant’s reputation.
I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the rest of Shinjuku, in particular the famed Golden Gai bar district. Similar to the maze of the tiny yakitori restaurants, but instead filled with bars. My final dinner in Tokyo was at a popular tonkatsu (crumbed pork cutlet) restaurant. The highlight was the head chef who is in his 80s and would casually pick up the just-fried cutlets and cut them up into pieces to be played. Served with shredded cabbage, rice and miso soup, this was a great finish to my time in Tokyo.