26th – 30th – Tokyo pt. 2 and return home

On the Tuesday – the 26^th – 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 3^rd 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 – 9^th 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. 

 

Tokyo station.

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. 

 

Japanese white-eye.

 

 

Brown-eared bulbul.

 

 

If you can't make up your mind whether you want red or white, get both!

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.

 

Offerings of sake.

 

 

Offerings of Bourgogne wine.

 

The shrine.

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. 

It looks nice, but not nearly as nice as it could have!

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 8^th 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. 

 

The chef presenting fatty, medium and lean bluefin tuna.

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.

This is how nigiri is supposed to be: plenty of fish, a little rice. Not the other way round!

 

 

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.

21st – 24th – Tokyo pt. 1

The first day in Tokyo wasn’t actually spent in Tokyo. I met up with 2 others from the group in the hotel lobby, and before anything else we said goodbye to our guide who was there and greeting all the tour’s participants as they left – even those leaving early at 0530. He was told not to but did it anyway; such a cool guy!

The three of us grabbed a train and travelled north of Tokyo to Nikko, an old town with a lot of history and a large area with old shrines and temples. Add to that a beautiful backdrop of mountains to spice it up. Considering the cultural history of the location there were surprisingly few tourists here compared to other places we had visited along the way, but natural bottlenecks at the temples and shrines did make it feel crowded at times, making me happy that it didn’t seem to be too popular a place to visit. The temples here were with finely carved details – and while that is fairly common among the temples in general, one stood out here, famously so with a trio of monkeys doing the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” which was used as inspiration as the ditto emoticon. The similarities were obvious. Returning to Tokyo we visited an amazing running sushi restaurant near the hotel where the pieces had small amounts of rice and huge chunks of delicious fish. I’m going to miss this place. 

 

Back in Tokyo for your mandatory night shots.

 

An area consisted of hundreds of small bars, only large enough to seat 8-10. 

The following day I once again left the city, this time alone. For the tour had been given rail passes that covered all rail by the JR operator and it would be expiring today. These are quite expensive so I decided to have one last hurrah with mine as to not let it go to waste. And wanting to go somewhere new where we hadn’t visited during the tour, I ended up getting onto a shinkansen going as far north I could get on Honshu (the main island) to a small town called Aomori. 3 hours with the shinkansen from Tokyo to get there and back – that train pass needed to be fully utilized!

Arriving in Aomori I was surprised to see how different it was compared to everywhere else we had been. Located where there is plenty of room there is no premium on space so things are spread out and main streets are open and wide. It felt more like an American or Canadian town with Japanese signs than an actual Japanese town. It was weird. There wasn’t much to do there, but they did have a very large Buddha statue which would be worth a look. I decided to walk there, I figured I’d have time to walk both ways and still catch my train home (I had managed to leave Tokyo a bit later than originally planned so I had only 4,5 hours in Aomori before having to return). Getting to the statue it seemed completely empty – I was surprised I didn’t see tumbleweeds flying across the parking lot. I was worried I had wasted the 8km walk there from the station but it turned out it was open it was just far outside tourist season. A lot of materials and tools were lying around being used for the ongoing restorations of the temples and shrines so it all seemed a bit messy. The highlight was definitely the very tall Buddha statue towering above the rest of the area and buildings. 

 

Open range in Aomori.

Leaving I realized it was perfectly timed with a bus passing by every 1-1½ hours and I quickly climbed onboard. Assuming it just went back to the town center I was surprised to realize that it took all the backroads, really reaching the rural parts of the town. There’s a single worn tori gate, there’s a pile of trash and two banged up fridges, another gate followed by an old empty rusty oil drum. A bit of everything. 45 minutes later I got off in the central part of town where I had a walk around along the coast and enjoying the view of the surrounding mountains and the city skyline from the pier at the cruise terminal. Walking around on the pier it was once again obvious it was outside the tourist season – there was absolutely nothing there. Completely desolate. Most tourists come here to go trekking and discovering the surrounding nature so it makes sense there are no one here at this time of the year. 

 

Aomori Prefecture Tourism Information Center. 

To me it looks more like a supervillain's base.

I ended up getting the local train back to the shinkansen station, grabbed a bit to eat and boarded the shinkansen back to Tokyo.

The following two days were mostly spent moving to my new hotel and walking the streets trying to get a better feel of the city when not using subways and trains. With a checkout from the hotel I left my main bag for storage before heading out and having a short walk to have a look around in a local camera shop (because why not? And it was amazing – so much on display on 5 floors) before heading to Tokyo station and getting tickets for my shinkansen ride to Nagano on Monday.

From here I walked south, passed Hamarikyu Gardens (but didn’t enter as it required a fee to enter – had the weather been better I would likely have entered) before continuing to my new hotel where I checked in. From here I started heading west, effectively circling south of the imperial palace and gardens, passing Shiba Park, passing through Minato before slowly heading north-ish, crossing through Shibuya and arriving at my old hotel. Going through Shibuya was an adventure; lots of people were out and having a great time, and going along the main street I probably passed by every high-end brand store you’d think of. 

At the hotel around 1900 I went back to the government building observation deck. Despite it being overcast it did not affect the visibility over the city. Unfortuntaely there was a lot of interior lighting which made it nearly impossible to get any good shots at all. It was so bad that at times you barely could just look out due to the reflections. Why do they do this?! Not enough observations decks have outdoor balconies. Coming back down I spent a few moments enjoying the end of a lightshow on the entire façade of the building before getting sushi for dinner, picking up my bag at the hotel and returning to my new hotel.

 

So many reflections...

 

Fancy lightshow on the outside when leaving.

The following day I walked north up to Ueno Park. This is definitely a place to go to see the cherry trees blossoming due to the thousands of trees – everything has been set up to be able to handle the massive amounts of people that will be descending in the coming weeks to see the blossoming. Looking at the recent forecasts I’m starting to realize that due to the large amounts of rain and less than expected sun in the past months the blossoming is postponed for a week or more – which is deeply frustrating as that means I will just get to see the meager start and the full blossoming won’t happen until at least a week after I have left. Walking around in the park there were plenty of food stalls so I had a late lunch (meat skewers, okonomiyaki and Taiwanese buns) before heading east to the Sensoji temple and Taitou and from there slowly making my way south along the Sumida River, eventually getting me back to Chuo City and Ginza where dinner was had and an early end to the day around 2030 back at the hotel.

 

 Old among the new

 

May I offer you a cup?

 

The walk up to Sensoji Temple.