Travel: Tokyo, Japan 2015
Japan has always been a place I’ve dreamed of visiting. It seems like such a unique place – different media, language, culture, strong attention to detail, rigidity of social structure, strong traditions, ultra-modern and sophisticated. Where else do you have capsule hotels? Living on the east coast of Canada, it was always too far and too expensive to get to. The trip was also a good opportunity to learn more about the startup scene there. It was great to have my good friend Bonnie join me to share on this Tokyo adventure.
Once you get off the plane, you already know Tokyo’s going to be a pretty unique place. We were immediately handed a card to fill out to determine how long it would take us to get through immigration and customs. I’m assuming this was done as some sort of quality control measure? Talk about pressure and service. There were also standard storage and shower facilities available immediately as well. Why don’t all airports come standard with this stuff?It can be quite difficult to get around in Tokyo if you don’t know Japanese. Knowing a little gets you a long way. Unlike Hong Kong, English won’t get you very far, and if you don’t know the language, be sure to write things out and know exactly how to get from point A to point B or you’re pretty much fucked. My phone died on the way to my hostel and I thought I was a goner. Wifi, GPS and Google Maps were all pretty essential for getting around Japan efficiently. What surprised me is how big Tokyo is. I feel I’ve only seen a fraction of the city. The first day was spent just looking around, checking into our sweet tradition-style Airbnb digs and taking in the sights and sounds of Tokyo.
We met up with a friend, HY at Nakameguro, the area known as the best place to view the cherry blossoms. Then, we went to nearby Iroha Sushi to chat and eat our first bite of sushi, the fish coming from Tsukiji fresh everyday. HY gave us some insight into how work-life culture is in Japan. It’s was especially interesting to get his take on it, as someone who’s Korean in ethnicity (another hardworking culture) who’s also lived in Canada for a period, so he knows the difference between laid-back and intense. Let’s just say it sounds a lot better to be a tourist in Tokyo. Later that night, we headed out to Shibuya to check out the famous Shibuya Crossing. Tokyo has a very similar atmosphere, cosmopolitan vibe and pulse that I’ve only ever felt in New York City. Shanghai comes close in certain areas, but even Hong Kong doesn’t have that feeling of “the future.” Tokyo Tower was incredibly inspiring. With an Eiffel-tower inspired design, the tower is painted painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations. Although nowadays, most people see Tokyo Skytree as the tower that defines Tokyo, Tokyo Tower has been an important part of Tokyo’s skyline since 1958.If you’re looking to get the best view and pictures of it up close, you might want to head to the Tokyo Prince Hotel, located just next door to the tower but far enough to get the tower in your full field of view in pictures.
Tokyo is one of those true lost and found cities. It’s a city that can offer extreme loneliness even with 13 million people nearby. The only way to find your favourite cafe or restaurant is to wander. Tokyo’s a place where they place their best restaurants in the basements of their metros and in cramped, smelly alleyways. Good luck convincing a Per Se or Le Bernardin to do the same. I got to see my old guitar duo friend Takuya. We used to play a lot of guitar duo music together back in Canada. He took us to a place called Shimokitazawa, an awesome town in Setagaya-ku considered to be an area important for the development of the arts, music and culture in Tokyo. It was odd to meet Takuya and pick up exactly where we left off what seems like ages ago. It made me realize sometimes we meet people we just inexplicably understand for whatever reason. Human nature’s great like that. It was great to reconnect and hear that he’s is doing well. The “izakaya” place he took us to was amazing. As a vehement carnivore, it’s pretty difficult to get me to put anything “vegetarian” at the top of my list. Another cool spot we saw was the aquarium at Sea Paradise, located in Yokohama. The aquarium is supposedly one of the best aquariums in the country and also one of the largest, housing over 100,000 fish, a notoriously sleepy polar bear and my favourite, penguins. We also saw an interesting dolphin, whale and seal show as well. It was a bit quiet due to it being a weekday, but I’d definitely like to come back again and check out the amusement park, which looked amazing. Definitely a full day attraction and I was reminded of Singapore’s Sentosa. Yokohama has a ramen museum as well, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to check it out. Coming back from Yokohama, we took a trip into Kabukichō (歌舞伎町) in Shinjuku, the entertainment and red light district of Tokyo for some yakitori.No visit to Tokyo would be complete without a visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market. Tsukiji is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. Opened in 1935 and having historical ties to Tokyo’s harbour since the 1870s, I could feel the importance of the place immediately. It was important to go this year, because next year, the market will be moved to Toyosu, to free up the valuable real estate land the Tsukiji market currently occupies and in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
We waited in line for over 4 HOURS IN THE RAIN to get a seat at one of the most famous sushi restaurants at Tsukiji, Sushi Dai.
For relaxing times, make it Suntory time. A bucket list goal of mine was to visit the New York Bar at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. I’ve been obsessed with coming here, the bar being featured prominently in one of my favourite movies of all time, Lost in Translation. It’s my new favourite bar and it also helps that it offers one of most interesting views of the city – when you look out the windows, you can see hundreds of red, blinking, aircraft warning lights in the distance. Very Blade Runner.
Harajuku, a collection of streets a bit off the beaten path from Omotesando (Japan’s “fashion drive”) is where Tokyo’s counter and youth culture congregate to invent and define. It’s incredibly important that a place like this exists, and given Japanese’s rigid society, definitely makes you realize how unique and special a place like this is. I’ve always heard the shopping here is incredible, but I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more about five years ago, when I preferred limited edition Jordans and wore more street fashion.
It was great to hang out with some old and new friends and get a sampler of Tokyo and what Japan has to offer.One of my favourite, final stops ended with a necessary trip to Haneda Airport to head back to Hong Kong. Our (arguably) nicest airport in Canada, Vancouver’s YVR doesn’t hold a candle to Haneda, in terms of shopping and food. Make sure you check out the domestic terminal, as the international one is pretty disappointing. If you need to grab last minute snacks and souvenirs, they’ve got you covered there.
There’s still so much I’ve yet to see just in Tokyo itself, never mind Japan. There are many destinations where you’d feel content seeing it only once just to put it on a checklist of experiences. For me, Japan is not one of those places. I know I’ll be back again.
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