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My Travel

Tokyo: Chilling in Daikanyama

After the shrill excitement of Harajuku we opted for a change of pace and walked to the Daikanyama district from Shibuya. It was a pleasant morning with a slight breeze and our map took us along quieter Tokyo streets, some of them residential, some clearly business-like, here a sleepy cat silently lounging on a porch, there a beautiful Japanese house, possibly a spa of some kind, promising miracles on its territory. Trees were still blooming with flowers and there weren’t as many high-rise buildings to see as in Shibuya. The tempo was decidedly more laid-back than what we had experienced the day before, and both our guidebooks described Daikanyama as wealthy, but at the same time low-key and charming.

We explored a big street stretching out in front of us, looked at shop windows and cafes, stepped in to side streets once again and reemerged, stopped for a sit-down in a courtyard where we promptly got bitten by very efficient mosquitos, found another puppy shop five times as expensive as the one we discovered in Shibuya and stumbled on a number of shop signs I would have gladly taken home with me. Well-dressed young mothers walked down the streets with their babies in strollers and despite it being a weekday I felt like it was another Saturday.

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From Daikanyama we walked to the Meguro river and along it, enjoying the continued tranquility, apartment buildings around us, stopping at more shop windows and exploring a cosy, winding street full of cafes and local flair. There were benches along the river that some people were smoking on, or quietly eating with their backs to the street (like we did later). The high-rise didn’t swallow the low-rise and everything just seemed to work together.

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Tokyo: Out and About in Harajuku

What would a visit to Tokyo be without becoming Harajuku girls for an afternoon? No, we didn’t dress up, but since we already stood out due to our height alone, we figured we were good. Filled to the brim with the spacious green beauty of Yoyogi park we set off towards Harajuku for what we suspected would surely be a change of scene. Easy to reach on foot from the park, the district is only a few minutes away. It’s also possible to walk there from Shibuya, or take the subway to Harajuku station.

Starting with the more upscale shopping boulevard Omotesandō is generally recommended and it’s a good way to flow in to Harajuku with the rest of the throngs of people making their way there. Stepping in to side streets that catch your eye because of a shop window, a temple or a restaurant may lead to interesting discoveries and that’s how we found this wonderful place for lunch.

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Once again I can confirm that, unfortunately, I don’t speak Japanese, but the power of taking pictures ensures that there is someone to ask what this place is called and where it is, should we want to come again. We picked it because it looked inviting and soothing, plus they had an English menu lying outside. In we went!

The restaurant was dimly lit inside, adding to the cosy feeling we immediately experienced upon setting foot there. Once I looked up and saw that ceiling completely covered with red and white lanterns, I was enchanted. While we waited for our food I took a look around and snapped one gorgeous wall for some more local flavour among our memories.

Cold jasmine tea on ice without alcohol (an option our waitress thankfully pointed out to us before we accidentally ordered the other version) was incredibly refreshing after the humidity outside and all that walking. Among the many delicious-looking dishes on the pictures in the menu we settled for avocado tempura – usually deep fried vegetables, but fruit works just as well! We also split three sizable meat dumplings between us – they disappeared too quickly to take a picture.

We decided to explore the famous Takeshita street to get the Harajuku experience, and it certainly delivered. Due to the aforementioned tendency for locals, and consequently tourists, to move forward along their left, progress worked out fine despite predictable crowds. Politeness and sometimes a little patience are all that’s needed.

If Harajuku can be at least partly defined by Takeshita street, then it was certainly everything we thought it would be: colourful, occasionally psychedelic, lively, at times eccentric, bursting with the kawaii (cute, often in connection with popular culture) and spilling with enthusiastic consumerism. Sweets, shoes, sunglasses, clothes, jewelry – you name it, in abundance. Shops often descended to basement levels, making it entirely possible to disappear in one building for hours on end.

A particular interest seems to be dressing up pets. What I at first mistook for a baby clothes shop with my nearsighted gaze turned out to be Pet Paradise, full of suits, hats, shirts and toys for (mostly small) pets, leaning heavily on Disney themes. We spotted a cat and owl cafe not far away, but after the initial excitement decided to continue, as the fees were somewhat outside our budget range. It’s recommended to read up on this a little before going in. Maybe some other time I will have my Harry Potter moment in an owl cafe.

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Tip: taking pictures in shops is tempting, but be sure to check if there’s a sign asking not to.

Harajuku also has its own Disney store – a not unwelcome discovery! Similar to many other shops I had explored a few months before in Disneyland Paris, it was still very pretty and looked very at home among everything that made up Takeshita street. Bonus – a big HD screen covered the wall behind the cashier counter, with songs from Disney animated films playing one after the other. It felt completely natural, appropriate to the travel experience, even, to stand there for a while and sing along (not too loudly) to A Whole New World, Let It Go and I See the Light.

Dessert opportunities pop up at convenient intervals, and the extremely realistic, high-quality fake reproductions of the food certainly get the appetite going. We stopped at Angel’s Heart for crêpes – a not at all uncommon snack in Tokyo. The fakes are displayed unrolled, so you can see the display of all the fabulousness that will fill your sweet treat once its ready. Mine contained a perfect small slice of chocolate cake, whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and sliced banana and strawberries. Obviously and judging by the people around us it was absolutely allowed to eat this on the street, so there are small exceptions to the rule.

 

 

 

 

 

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Tokyo: Yoyogi Park

I love to search for the green heart of a big city, and so we set off on a walk to Yoyogi Park. It’s reachable on foot from Shibuya within half an hour (maybe 40 minutes if you stop to check Googlemaps) and we left the fast pace of our temporary home behind us, passing more subdued areas with a few shops and cafes, before finally arriving at the gates to the park.

I have to say I caught my breath, there was just something about them. The clearly Japanese style is of course impressive and distinctive, but it was as if we really were about to enter a gateway to yet another different world within the excitement of this one. There they stood, those towering columns of the Southeast entrance, and beyond them a mass of still summery green and trees.

Yoyogi park is open for 24 hours and it’s a wonderful discovery for those who love to walk, especially in wide, open spaces, as well as those who know their plants and trees. Curving tree trunks, leafy crowns meeting overhead, ferns and acorns scattered along  the paths like green forest gems.

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We were walking through the park planning to stop at the Meiji Shrein on the way, when we saw a sign pointing towards some steps and saying Kiyosama’s Well. Intrigued, we paid the 500 admission fee, got a helpful map describing the individual spots we were about to encounter.

What we had discovered was actually a gem, a park within a park, the Meiji Jingu Inner Garden. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 the garden was owned by the Imperial Family. An enchanting green respite full of yet more plants, trees and beautiful nooks and crannies, the garden also stands out due to repeated mentions of the love, or “consideration”, Emperor Meiji had for his Empress Shoken. These feelings led to the construction of the Kakuun-tei, a teahouse unfortunately burned down during WWII, but carefully rebuilt in 1958. Empress Shoken was said to have loved this teahouse and “rested” there when she visited the garden, spending time by the pond nearby or strolling along a winding path lined with azaleas. It’s a hilly area, but with a “gentle slope”, according to our booklet – another loving detail. It certainly is a wonderful picture to imagine and I couldn’t help feeling curious about this woman. There is a lot of interesting information to read about her, and among other things it turns out she was a talented and active poet. She was also a whopping three years older than her betrothed, gasp, so her birthyear was officially changed to allow the marriage.

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The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine and here too a strong connection to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken is apparent. Their graves are not located in the Shrine itself, but to quote, the “souls are enshrined” there. Before entering the territory you join other visitors next to a small fountain with multiple wooden gourds, and, following their lead (or covertly watching the Japanese if you did not read up on this beforehand), you fill a gourd with water, pour some in your hand, then some in the other hand, moisten your mouth and cheeks, then proceed. If you like, you can buy a fortune and make a contribution to the Shrine – 100 yen drops in to a wooden box and after a bit of rummaging you pull out a small bilingual scroll with a poem written (most likely) either by Emperor Meiji or Empress Shoken. A nice souvenir and a pleasant reminder of a visit to an interesting place filled with a sense of peace and at the same time some weighty history. Obviously the religious ritual isn’t obligatory, especially for tourists, but it’s a nice custom and the clear explanations tactfully placed throughout the Shrine make it easy to feel included. There are several Shinto prayer rituals described in the Shrine of varying degrees of openness and it’s touching to read the messages visitors leave behind.

 

 

 

 

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Tokyo: Newbie Impressions 2

A friend told me before I left that there were no trash bins in the city and this is true. When we get snacks along the way, we carefully put all the waste in the plastic bag usually provided, or we just take one with us, and carry it around until we get back to the hotel. A pleasant consequence is that so far we have seen practically no litter in the city.

Eating while walking or generally on the street is considered ill-bred. We don’t see much of it here, but a few cases have been spotted, for example in Harajuku, although ice cream or those creative desserts from Angel Crepes don’t seem to be an issue. What we did today was simply pick a bench and quietly eat with our backs to the street. Clever!

The Japanese are very good at recognizing which things will lead to questions from foreign tourists, as is clear by some English translations we’ve seen around. Just when you start wondering, voila, there it is, the crucial point. “Please don’t touch the puppies and ask for assistance” in a very expensive pet shop in the Daikanyama district.

Wearing socks with shoes is very popular among ladies, and oh, what socks they are. The shoes alone are worth several articles of ecstatic description, but the socks are not far behind, in every color imaginable, with ribbons, pearls, feathers etc etc. Feet are taken seriously here. As is everything else, it seems? I saw a woman with pearls lining the hems of her jeans and generally being “dressed” is certainly filled with a new meaning over here, at all times of the day.

In contrast to hotels in other countries I’ve stayed in, we have not heard or seen the housekeeping staff in our hotel, but when we come back from walking, everything is comfortable and pristine, and the robes (yes, we get robes, unexpected) are folded on the beds like I never could fold myself. Only it doesn’t button all the way down, because, once again, I’m too big for Japan.

Some of the talking does sound like what you may have heard during your childhood anime watching. It’s generally a melodious, sometimes even sing-song language, and you understand why the Japanese have a reputation of being musical and good at singing.

Long lines outside of Western eating places are a very common sight, often made up of mostly teenage school students or young people, none of them looking bored, but either doing something on their phones or chatting to each other. Dessert places are frequented especially heavily and the excitement about what’s on offer is palpable. The Disney theme regularly pops up among sweet food and seems to be at home among the poppy brightness that is one part of what we connect with Japanese culture.

Nobody stares at me when I think I’m being awkward with my chopsticks. They just enjoy their own meal and let others eat in peace.

And while locals do of course talk and laugh among themselves in the city, even in Shibuya I get the impression that if it weren’t for the traffic, it would generally be pretty quiet. It might be an inner quality, maybe that’s why it’s always possible to sit down and think here.

 

 

 

 

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Tokyo: Newbie Impressions

The toilets talk. It’s a wee bit unnerving. No (British) pun intended. OK, they don’t actually talk, at least I haven’t, er, experienced anything like that yet. But they are always warm. Some of them make a noise when you, er, get very close. Others lift the lid up by themselves when you enter and the panel of buttons next to the seat is intimidating at first glance, but the most important one is usually illustrated unmistakably or simply helpfully labeled with FLUSH in English.

There was one fantastic toilet I didn’t want to leave for a while, because there were paper cups by the sink and little packages of what turned out to be self-toothpasting toothbrushes. You hold them under running water and voila.

When shopping, cash is put in a small tray placed in front of you for that purpose, and if you miss this step and hand it over to the cashier, you apologize, because that is not how things are done around here, and since the cashier is thanking you so graciously you feel horribly disrespectful. Your change, though, is given back to you by hand, but I can’t help wondering if that is happening because of my aforementioned blunder.

Little towels soaked in warm water await on tables in almost all the cafes we’ve been to so far, and it’s very refreshing after a lot of walking in the city. Most containers on the tables will include a sauce for food, even if said container looks like a teapot to you and you accidentally ruin your sister’s green tea by wanting to be helpful and pouring in to her cup from said container.

Almost everyone, and that’s a seemingly constant stream of a great many people, walk on the left. Navigating becomes a habit, and even if you do err to the right, locals will politely skirt around you, giving you breathing space to step back to where you belong.

Even if your waitress only speaks Japanese and you, unfortunately, don’t, she will stay until she has made absolutely sure that she has understood your order correctly, even if you start repeating “OK” like a parrot just so as not to feel like an idiot and let her do her job. Her attentiveness will cause blushing and feelings of subsequent gratitude in your soul.

Locals also like to stop and watch traditional Japanese weddings and film them with their (considerably more advanced than mine) mobile devices. No pushing or yelling.

If you go inside a jewelry shop like Osemawa in the Harajuku district and open your mouth at the sheer amount of earrings on offer, after a closer look you will see a sign reading “FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE PIERCED HOLE”.

There are people everywhere and most of them look happy and industrious.

And I want to take pictures of practically every sign, poster or ad, because I can’t read them, but each letter is so intricate that it all looks like a work of art.

 

 

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