January 27th – February 1st

Hello Tokyo!

The city that never sleeps. A mind bending fever dream that’ll stop you in your tracks, over & over. We’ve taken a step back from the big city lights and are currently in the hills of Chikuma – out Nagano way, but let’s rewind to the chaos shall we?

We touched down Saturday night, the flight went well, nice and quick, arrived a bit early, didn’t check bags and were down in the JR line metro area by 430 for our 1h ride to the city from Narita, where one of Tokyo’s airports is located. Thor had set up an eSIM so we were connected when we needed to be. Checked into the hotel, Amanek in Kabukicho Shinjuku just before 7 and set out to find a late dinner by 8. Decently efficient. It’s an efficient country. We located a ramen place, ordered via a screen, got seats, tucked in and gobbled it down. Hit the spot. We meandered around, in awe of the next level bustle. Multi story video billboards, projecting provocative male host clubs. The constant cacophony of Don Quijote, pumping their strangely addictive theme song into the crowded streets. We loosely aimed for our hotel and eventually called it a night, & tried brushing up on some Japanese… because the language barrier is still holding strong.

Sunday Sunday. We dip out for some caffeine to hopefully put us on the right foot, time zone adjustment wise. Find a starbs for a matcha & a latte, and I kid you not, within 5 minutes, the place starts swaying. A fellow napping behind us in one of the cozy chairs perks up and says “Shinkansen”, (the bullet train) mostly to himself, but no one else really bats an eye. They look up from their devices, but no one takes cover, or even stands up for that matter. Give or take a minute, Thors high school chum – who now resides in Tokyo – shoots him a text confirming it was indeed a small quake, 4.8 magnitude, and a very very normal occurrence. So that woke us up! And how nonchalant all the locals were. No tsunamis around Tokyo I guess.

I was about ready to not be inside a building, so we headed out to get our bearings and do some exploring. We headed through a few parks, and some areas that had some promising meal options, eventually we looped back around and found a conveyor belt sushi place, Kura, and smashed 19 tasty plates. Would do again. Efficient. A tap of hot and ready green tea. They count your plates and you pay up on departure. You barely stop heading in or departing. Later Sunday we experienced the must see – Don Quijote – a discount store on acid if you may – with everything you don’t need. We got sweets, like good respectable adults. I’m weak for Japanese milk candy. It feels like each aisle is dotted with tablets advertising corresponding products – volume on max – and spastic adhd inducing commercials. Overwhelmed, we left and followed our noses to a Korean bbq spot where they scissor snip up the meat for you at the table and cook it over a smoking hot hot plate – fit with an extended exhaust fan. Piles of kimchi. Did some more evening wanders – toured pachinko, claw game & photo booth emporiums – and hit the hay. The visual stimulation is a lot.

I think we both fell asleep way too early /& fully dressed. We were up at 4, I know. But wide awake. Figured we’d check the Tsukiji Fish Market off the list for Monday. Pounded an iced coffee, hopped on a train and was devouring a precious little strawberry daifuku mochi by sunrise. Now, if you’ve never had/heard of mochi I’ll attempt an explanation. I actually saw a little mochi making machine, akin to a rice cooker. So it’s made from a glutinous short grain rice and water, for a savoury version, or it can be sweetened/coloured and/or flavoured, traditionally matcha. Now, red bean, or adzuki bean, is japans speciality, sweetened, mashed into a mostly smooth paste and used as the filling in a delicious little mouthful of a treat that is daifuku mochi. I was on the hunt for a strawberry topped pinky, found it, and wasn’t disappointed. They call it a rice cake, but texturally I compare it to raw cookie dough, with more chew to it, with tender red bean paste and juicy sweet strawberry to kick it off. A juxtaposition of texture. They really win at strawberries here, pricey, but worth it. Not sour and underripe like home. A flat (of 10 berries) can put you back between $10 and $30, or $25 for alpines (white strawberries). They’re all perfect gems, uniform in size, no waste.

Post mochi we refocus and decide to head out to where the fish market has moved to, which is Toyosu Fish Market, down on the waterfront, about a 45 minute walk. A beautiful new building with observation decks for tourists to gawk from and stay safely out of the way. Unfortunately, we’re here much too late in the day to witness any actual action. We hit up a sashimi set lunch upstairs, happy as a couple clams. Post lunch we hopped on the subway headed towards Hie Jinja Shrine & steps. Stopped off for a quick caffeine break, more matcha pls, little rest and decided on finding some plum blossoms as it was a beautiful day. Koishikawa Korakuen Garden wasn’t terribly far, and we got to enjoy the peacefulness of the historical grounds, plus 30 varieties of Ume in their grove.

Tuesday rolls around and we are headed south to Shibuya & Akibara for the day. Katsuya for breakfast, beautiful crunchy pork loin breaded and fried, I opted for the curry sauce. Very delicious. No bad meals. We wandered around the city, checked out Love Merci, a Maid Cafe, the Hachiko memorial statue – which I was pleased to see a decent line for. Actually hit me in the feels. RIP sweet pup.

Want to know about Love Merci? Uncle Ricky cover your eyes. It’s a 5 story romance shop selling “couples goods” and very Japan. Saying it’s an accepting culture is an understatement. Everything from outfits, props, male only floors. Very discrete. Very amusing. While in Rome.

Shibuya scramble is in the same block as Hachi, so we headed up for a better view, which was pleasant but we were there mid day so it wasn’t crazy busy. Followed our little noses to a little shop selling yakitori, a Toritake flagship shop and had our fill of chicken on sticks. Loved.

On Wednesday we toodled back over to Shibuya to meet up with Thors school chum Anna for lunch, which was lovely! She gave us the inside scoop on what it’s like living and trying to date in Tokyo. She’s Japanese but went to school in Australia, and has been back in Japan for 2 years. She picked out the lunch spot, where you grill up okonomiyaki, a cabbage pancake – in the loosest term – with a protein, we had roe in one and chicken in one. Grilled and scraped up when caramelized to perfection. Quite delicious. Probably not something we would’ve opted for on our own but loved it and the experience. Anna was a great host, very open and blunt. Very no holds barred. Post lunch we decided to book it back to Shinjuku to catch a show.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. That’s lame. And there’s probably nothing I can write to effectively portray what happened in the mind bend of a basement, but it was good enough for Bourdain, you best believe we wanted to see what it was all about. Firstly, “Robot Restaurant” is no longer operating. Lost to Covid. In turn someone’s opened “Samurai Restaurant” which is pretty dang close second. Close your eyes, picture, an Ed Hardy colour vomit explosion, rainbow neon lights, disco balls, thumping music and bizarre animatronic animation. And that’s only the stairwell to the basement. They take your coats (it’s HOT anyways) shuffle you down a twisting cell of stairs, tell you all the rules, start feeding you drinks, and you wait for the show to start. It’s a small space, probably 20 bar seats in the front and 8 booths lining the back wall. The show runs from 3-5 and is a “musical” with 20+ actors/singers sometimes with subtitles even though they’re performing in English, and I think there is a plot but for the life of me I don’t know what happened. Lots of lasers, choreography, shouting and floats. Like. Mind boggling. Also, I’m pretty sure it turns into a different kind of show after hours… All in all, it indeed was an experience. We went into it kind of knowing what to expect, so I can’t imagine what it would be like to go in blind. Our booth mates, a young Aussie couple went in blind and were beyond shocked.

Post show we went for gyoza and invited along the aussies that were boothies with us at the show, and finished the night off with some karaoke! How wholesome eh? Very hangover.