Tokyo

Saturday, 23 / Sunday 24th March, London to Tokyo

An early start on a bright blue spring morning got us to Heathrow for our 9:00 flight to Tokyo (Narita) via Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways. The first leg was fine, particularly  with the on-board entertainment options keeping us all amused. The second, overnight leg from the very swish new terminal in Abu Dhabi was long and a bit cramped, plus what seemed like an hour of heavy turbulence while we trying to sleep.

After 2 trains and a short walk, by 6-ish we got to the digs which are tucked away off the busy main drag in Takadanobaba, a ward of Shinjuku city (pop. 330,000), itself a part of the greater Tokyo metropolis (pop. over 37+ million), down a narrow lane with only walking access. Traditional look and feel – sliding paper doors, lots of dark wood against white walls, a step inside the front door for changing shoes into the provided slippers, no carpet or curtains, plus state of the art bathrooms.

With us all starting to feel a bit strung out after a long day’s night, we went round the corner to a sushi restaurant in the Hama Sushi chain which has the novelty of delivering your food on a conveyor belt, preceded by a short warning fanfare when the plate is about to stop at your table. We endured a long wait to get seated but, after that, the orders that we placed directly via a tablet arrived very quickly: a tasty range of nigiri and some delicious tempura king prawns.

Monday, 25th March

First, to the Tokyo Metropolitan Building which has famously all-round views from the top (48th) floor 202m up, except that it was raining hard and the clouds were lower than we  were, so no view at all.  Lunch of tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet). Rather surprised to see a small homeless encampment in an underpass.

It was then time to hit the renowned entertainment centre, Kabikucho, paying our respects to Godzilla and visiting the huge arcade in the new Kabikucho Tower in search of the Taiko drumming game. The first session on the genuine thing, as opposed to on Nintendo,  went better than expected, so I should be able to up the level. However, it’s challenging to make a video recording as the noise level in the arcade overwhelms the sound track of the game.

Tuesday, 26th March

Raining heavily so we headed across town to Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation which was fascinating. Very hands-on, not over-crowded, environmentally aware (covering access to water, income inequality, over-fishing …), accessible to all ages but not at all patronising. It wasn’t all serious – the robot puppies were a big hit. The last photo shows (not very clearly) something that illustrates  the Japanese attention to detail. Everyone uses an umbrella (for good reason) and inside the museum, instead of having to carry it around wet, there is device for partly drying it  before you lock it into a dedicated  rack.

 

Wednesday, 27th March

Morning: Tsujiki outer (fish) market

The old, very early morning indoor market with the tuna auction is closed now to all except private tours. The outdoor market is basically a city block of street food with an amazing range of fish and seafood on offer, including, octopus balls, squid on a stick, these scallops, plus jumbo oysters and, of course, sushi:

 

Afternoon: teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills

It’s impossible to describe the immersive experience of exploring down dark connecting corridors from one dazzling room to another. The colourful, vivid and varied displays cover walls, ceiling and floor with ever-changing imagery, and even react to your presence. For example, if you stand in a stream, the water diverts and flows around your feet. Here a couple of photos, though they don’t do it justice. Cherry blossom is 2 weeks late this year so this was our first sighting:

Back across town to cross the famous Shibuya Scramble (estimates vary, but go as high as 500,000 people crossing on the busiest days). Photos from ground level don’t really show the scale and activity, unfortunately. Then we made our way to Flipper’s for their kiseki or soufflé pancakes. As it’s strawberry season, that was a popular topping.  The elaborately-titled ‘3 Kinds of lemon and cream cheese’ featured lemon sorbet piled with cream cheese and lemon curd. Phenomenally fluffy!

Back at the house we were too tired to go out to eat so, Catherine and Satch went out to fetch ramen all-round.