On the Tuesday – the 26th – I woke up to pouring rain and no matter how much I willed it to not rain it just kept coming down. As it seemed to become a wet full day I decided to spend as much time as possible indoors. So I took the train back to Ueno park where I headed towards the National Museum. Seeing the queue outside I gave up on that idea and instead went to the National History Museum just next door which had no outdoor queue.
The museum was similar to any other national history museum you’d visit – going through history, evolution and everything in between. The museum was spread out on multiple floors so the exhibition was quite large. There was even a floor where they presented Japanese Nobel winners, scientific techniques and similar. It was all very interesting , and it would have been even more so if they had translated more than 5% of all the texts (and that’s a very generous 5%) describing what was shown or exhibited. That fact was unfortunately a bit disappointing.
Following this I returned outside into the still pouring rain and headed towards the National Museum where the queue had shortened somewhat. Getting inside I deposited my wet jacket and bag into a coin locker (which were common to see almost everywhere in museums) before starting my walk around. It went through art and culture for the last 40.000 years – basically from when the first people arrived in Japan (based on archeological finds). They also had a nice small collection of samurai swords – design and workmanship of most of them was beautiful. There was a lot of care put into design. Funnily they didn’t mention anywhere that the reason why the folded the iron so many times (resulting in the beautiful layered patterns) was to build strength into the weapon when using Japanese iron which is generally of very poor quality. Getting halfway through the top floor the time turned 1700 and they informed the guests that they were closing. Woops. So I rushed through the rest, but seeing that most of it looked like mostly clothes and dying of these so I don’t think I missed much relative to my own interests. The overall experience was so-so; at least they had translated all texts to English but it felt very dry throughout the exhibition. It was borderline boring at times, also compared to other similar museums – I didn’t feel it was the content itself that was uninteresting.
I left the building – and it was still pouring down – and took the train to Shibuya where I after a wet search finally managed to find a place for dinner before returning to the hotel.
The following day the weather was the complete opposite; sun, warm and barely a cloud. I left the hotel with a bit more optimism than yesterday and started off on a roof terrace on 3rd floor putting me at eyelevel of the shinkansen trains going by nearby, just south of Tokyo station. Unfortunately only the white ones came by this way as the more colorful ones primarily go north. Apart from me there were 3 local elderly men, all with their own cameras who looked like they took it very seriously – trainspotting is apparently quite popular in Japan. The roof – 9th floor – of a mall next to Tokyo station was the next stop. Great view of the station building with its 20+ tracks and the plaza in front facing the imperial palace. Unfortunately the shinkansen were on the far tracks so despite getting to see a larger variety of trains – including the northbound more colorful ones – the position for actually seeing anything was less advantageous.
With the cherry blossom season being postponed
with 1-1½ weeks compared to just a few weeks ago I decided that even a little
would also be fine. So I headed towards Shinjuku park where a few trees were
already blooming. If you were colorblind you’d still know exactly what trees
were in bloom as they attracted hordes of people surrounding them gave it away.
Only a handful of the hundreds of trees were blooming, but they showed colors
from light pink to a very intense dark pink – almost red. Those that were blooming
were beautiful and several of them were occupied by birds jumping around in
them and feeding on the flowers.
From there I went to have lunch before visiting the Meiji shrine in the middle of a forest in Tokyo and because of the surrounding trees it felt calm walking around here despite having a sprawling metropolis just outside. It was built to commemorate (and hold the souls of) Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken who are considered being those who took the initiative to found what we consider modern Japan.
From there the walk took me to the moat around the imperial castle, which, if everything had gone according to plan, would have been lined by blooming cherry trees on both sides. Instead there were bare trees illuminated by colored lights. It looked nice but it wasn’t quite the same. 6 people had found 2 small clusters of flowers on a branch, though, which probably made it the most photographed flower cluster in town.
From there I hurried back to the hotel, left my bag and hurried back out to get to my table reservation for sushi omakase at Sushi-ya. 1 chef behind the counter, 3-4 helpers and 8 customers (5 Brazilians, 2 Indonesians and me). It was quite an adventurous 2 hours. I stopped counting at around the 8th dish but we must have been served around 20 pieces of nigiri, salad, soup, omelet, etc. The chef expertly cut and arranged everything in front of us as we went along, with the occasional shout at the kitchen getting a loud “Hai!” back and moments later someone came out with whatever he had requested, whether it was more rice, fried vegetables, lightly cooked fatty tuna, more drinks or what may have been needed in that certain situation. The helpers were very observant if you needed a water refill or running out of drinks. At one point I accidentally dropped a piece of sushi on the table between the serving plate and myself; I quickly got it back up and wiped the table with my napkin, trying to remove any evidence of my clumsiness. Putting my napkin back where it had been placed I noticed that the chef was halfway with his own napkin but realizing I had been faster than him he instead shouted an order and seconds later a waiter’s hand snuck up next to me from behind, grabbed my napkin and left a new fresh one instead.
We were 8 happy and full customers who left the restaurant 2 hours later. Too bad this will forever shrew my view of what good sushi is (not to mention that the sushi here is so much better and not least significantly cheaper than it is at home!). Absolutely amazing and delicious. Worth the price despite being able to buy many meals at a random running sushi place for the price of this.
The last few days I started seeing what people meant that you could spend a week in Tokyo before you'd feel the need to do something else, and I felt at times I was just walking around trying to kill time and find somewhere that had more blooming cherry trees. I found myself spending time in well known areas like Shibuya and Shinjuku with the constant activity without the (unhinged) chaos, returning to Shinjuku park on the last day to realize that just those few days since last visit was enough to notice many more trees blooming (but still a fraction of what was to come) and taking in the mood there. Something I hadn't done yet was trying to get some skyline photos of the city which was hard to find as there weren't many good places with enough space that you were able to take in the entire view without getting obstructed by buildings. During the day walking around near where my first hotel was located I realized a pedestrian path had been constructed along the water which gave the exact view I had been hoping for. On that last night in Japan I got myself out there, enjoyed the silence of being almost alone and took in the views - and there being barely a cloud on the sky improved the experience. It was probably one of the few nights here in Tokyo where the sky was clear. Great timing.
Coming back into the center after getting my shots I was looking for a place with pork katsu. Unfortunately, getting there close to 2200 most restaurants were closing and I saw my chance of getting my last portion of pork katsu slipping through my fingers. I ended up having to settle for ramen - and using the word "settling" about ramen is an hyperbole; while it wasn't pork katsu it was still pretty damn tasty.
The following early morning I checked out from my hotel, grabbed the train to the airport, checked in and flew home without a hitch. Big thanks to The Equalizer 3, J Edgar Hoover, The Marvels, Barbie and Ferrari for entertaining me along the way when I wasn't sleeping.
What a trip this was! I didn't quite know what to expect other than the marathon and food, but I was blown away by the entire thing. I came home after 4½ weeks with amazing memories which I hope I one day get to experience once again - maybe go for a trekking trip which there are plenty of possibilities to do in the wilder areas of the country. Or, if for nothing else, then for the ramen, pork katsu and sushi.
Full album can be seen here.
