Tuesday 7 December 2010 - Tuesday 21 December 2010
Lost in translation in Tokyo
Always fascinating, occasionally frustrating, Japan is definitely the country that gave us biggest culture shock so far. We have rarely felt so foreign, useless and lost as in Japan. On the other hand, we have never met so many nice people, witnessed such a level of impeccable service and been treated so politely as in the land of the rising sun.
Japan is just such a refreshing change in many ways from other countries we have visited so far. There are only a limited number of people that speak English, so finding out even the most straight-forward things can be a struggle, but on the other hand we were often the only tourists in many places - and definitely in most if not all restaurants - and the Japanese are not only very polite, they also go out of their way to help you when lost (and that happened a lot, given that there are often no street signs and if there are, they are definitely not in English).
It has to be said that I am not sure how we would have survived without our good friends and excellent hosts Soichi and Kazuko who guided us through the city and more importantly Japanese customs and traditions with patience and a smile (we probably would still be wandering around the Tokyo subway somewhere without them).
So here is how we did on our to-do list of the "weird and wonderful" that we encountered in the 12.5 million people metropolis we call Tokyo:
# Pressing all the buttons while sitting on a toilet in a Ginza department store and starting to slightly panic when you can't work out how to put an end to the water cannon that has been splashing your bum for the last 5 minutes - Tick
# Having a Bill Murray "Lost in translation" moment while strolling through Harajuku checking out the schoolgirls dressed as Alice in Wonderland - Tick
# Getting completely lost on the Tokyo subway, convinced that you are on the Yurakucho line while you are actually on the Hibiya line - Tick
# Strolling over the Tsukiji Fish Market early in the morning, gazing at those massive tunas while fearing for your life as you try to jump out of the way of those crazy electrical carts that prowl the market - Tick
# Choosing your Tsukiji sushi restaurant by just joining the longest cue you can find, having given up on trying to work out where that particular restaurant out of the Lonely Planet is located exactly - Tick
# Wondering how bizarre it is that you just managed to get a can of steaming hot coffee out of a Coca Cola vending machine while Soichi and Kazuko are slamming away on a driving range in the middle of Tokyo ... at midnight - Tick
# Staring out of the massive windows of Soichi and Kazuko's amazing apartment on the 33rd floor on a clear morning and being able to see Mount Fuji more than 100km away - Tick
# Tying up the Omikuji (paper fortune) on the board outside Senso-ji temple in Asakusa, in the hope that the wind will blow away the bad fortune while you are still wondering what "Hearing a morning call of a cock, you will have to wait for a chance to come" was actually supposed to mean - Tick
# Despairing when the taxi driver who doesn't speak any English seems to be even more lost than you are, and that is even before you realise you don't have any cash on you and he doesn't accept any credit cards - Tick
So what else did we get up to? Well we did some shopping in Harajuku, crossed the famous four-way crossing in Shibuya, had a Gordon Ramsay styled breakfast with Mike in the Conrad Hotel, noodle lunch with Kobanawa-san in Ginza, coffee with Yumi in Yebisu and a memorable dinner with Miyanaga-san and Omura-san in a traditional Torisuki restaurant called Tamahide.
Eating Wagyu beef in Kobe
After 4 days in Tokyo, we flashed our Japan Rail Passes at Tokyo station and jumped on the Shinkansen bullet train to Kobe. At a speed of 300 km per hour, the Shinkansen are a fantastic way to travel through Japan and the trip took us just under 3 hours. The Japanese railway system is amazingly efficient, all trains are precisely on time and only stop at a station for up to half a minute. The carriages are extremely quiet as the use of mobile phones is seen as socially unacceptable (although funnily enough smoking is still allowed in designated carriages). And the best part is that all seats can be turned around, so if you don't like the person opposite you, you take your chances and press the button to swing your seat around. NS eat your heart out.
The port city of Kobe has a population of around 1.5 million and is best know for the massive 1995 earthquake that not only brought down many of the city's buildings, but also my first employer London merchant bank Baring Bank (thanks to good old Nick Leeson who had bet on an rising Nikkei Index, oops). The "foodies" probably also know Kobe because of the famous Kobe Wagyu beef (the dad of LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant liked it so much he named his son after it). Some stockbreeders are said to give their dwarf Kobe Wagyu cattle beer and a massage in order to get to the best end result: a fat, marbled beef which is rightfully considered a delicacy. We were more than happy to follow Per's recommendation - "Eat Kobe beef until you are broke" - and we have to admit that massaging the cattle clearly does bring home the bacon.
The real reason for coming to Kobe was of course to visit good old Robbie. Robbie, who works for the youth set-up of the J1 football team Vissel Kobe, has somehow managed to master the Japanese language and is as good as fluent (given our complete lack of understanding of the Japanese language he could as well speak Korean for what we know, but we will give him the benefit of the doubt). Drinking sessions were limited to two nights - ok maybe three - and Rob only had to crash on the sofa in our gigantastic hotel room once.
Spotting whale sharks in Osaka
Just a 15 minute Shinkansen ride from Kobe lies Japan's third largest city, Osaka. Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium is home to the mother of all fish tanks, showing off two massive whale sharks, a tiger shark a few leopard sharks and a hammerhead shark. A pair of mantas somehow cohabitate peacefully with this lot. And this wouldn't be Japan if they wouldn't dress up the scuba diver that feeds these guys in a Santa Claus suit.
Before catching our Shinkansen ride back "home" to Kobe, we couldn't resist but sampling the local specialty Okinomiyaki, which is as much as a pork and cabbage omelet, doused in a syrupy version of Worcestershire sauce. Not the most healthy dinner ever, but very nice nevertheless.
Hugely impressive Hiroshima
Another day-trip from Kobe on the Shinkansen brought us to Hiroshima. Hiroshima is sadly best known for the fact that it was the first city to be targeted by an A-bomb on 6 August 1945. The A-bomb leveled the city instantly and killed 145,000 people before the year-end. The hugely impressive Peace Memorial Park and Museum commemorates this historic event in an impressive way.
The story of 11-year old leukemia victim Sadako Sasaki is the single story that touched us both most. In 1955, 10 years after the bomb, 11-year old Sadako was diagnosed with leukemia. Young Sadako decided to fold 1,000 origami paper cranes, as there is a saying in Japan, that if you fold a thousand origami paper cranes your wish will come true. Sadako had only one wish and that was not to die. Despite folding over a 1,000 paper cranes on her sick bed, leukemia still got the best of her and Sadako didn't make it. In her memory, and of that of all Hiroshima children affected by the A-bomb, the Children's Peace Monument was built. Fittingly, the monument is surrounded by thousands of origami paper cranes.
Hiroshima is not the most fun place to visit, but it is hugely impressive and sad at the same time. Definitely an everlasting impression.
Kyoto's temple bonanza
We spent four days in Kyoto and without a doubt this is the prettiest of the Japanese cities we visited. Kyoto was the imperial capital between 794 and 1868 and is considered Japan's cultural capital. It has no less than 1,600 Buddhist temples, over 400 Shinto shrines and 17 Unesco World Heritage Sites.
We had a good go at those 1,600 temples and managed to visit...ehmm four of them. We will have to do the remaining 1,596 when we come back. So far we ticked off the Kodaiji Temple, the flamboyant Kiyomizu-Dera (with great views over Kyoto), Nijo-Jo (technically speaking not a temple, but famous because its first owner Tokugawa shogun Ieyasu wasn't the most trustworthy of shoguns and fitted the whole place with "nightingale" floors that squeak at every move, making it difficult for intruders - and that bloke that was shagging his wife - to move about quietly, and last, but not least, Ginkaku-Ji or the Silver Pavilion. Despite its name, no actual silver was used for the Silver Pavilion.
In Kyoto we stayed in the small 7-room boutique Hotel Mume in the Gion geisha district and they managed to get us some reservations at well-hidden places such as Yata and Kokoraya, eating at sunken tables while being surrounded by confused locals wondering how those clumsy Westeners who seemed to be trying to kill the staff with chop-sticks managed to get in in the first place.
We finished off our Kyoto experience by walking Tetsugaku-No Michi or the Path of Philosophy. This is a 1.5km path that runs along a canal lined with cherry trees and which takes its name from 20th-century philosopher Nishida Kitaro who used to walk this path while meditating.
Eating cod sperm in a Hakone Onsen
No visit to Japan is complete without a visit to a real Onsen or traditional Japanese spa. All credit to Soichi and Kazuko who took us to one of the oldest and most renowned Onsens in Hakone, a place where emperors and prime ministers used to come to spend their weekends. Staying at an Onsen is a real treat, we stayed in a huge centuries old wooden house and before we had a chance to dip our toes in the steaming hot water a traditional nine course Japanese dinner was being served. And what a dinner this was, we had cod sperm (it tastes a bit creamy, no surprises there), sea snails (the gut is the best part), fried fish bones (very crispy), sweet potatoes (apparently the Japanese Emperor liked the sweet potatoes here so much, that the Onsen sent him a bag of it every year until his death), fresh sashimi, beef stew and a traditional Japanese desert. Fully satisfied, we shuffled towards the Onsen bath through the dark night and splashed ourselves into the hot water while looking at the stars in the sky. What a fantastic experience.
The next day we managed to drop by the Owakudani Natural Hot Springs which finds itself at the center of the Hakone volcano. This place is best known for its "magic" black eggs that are boiled in the Owakudani Natural Hot Springs. Each egg is said to prolong your life by no less than 7 years. Always in for some "black magic", we bought 10 of them for the 4 of us, adding 70 years to our lives or at least 16 and a bit years each.
Thanks to British Airways we even ended up with an extra day in Tokyo. A day Em gladly spent getting her nails done "Kazuko style" with glitters and other funky stuff. This also gave Soichi a chance to show off his new yellow BMW M3 in a garage that resembled the movie set of the "Fast and the furious". Billy Walsh did manage to get us on another flight the next day and reluctantly we left Tokyo. We had a truly amazing time here and special thanks is due to our fantastic hosts Soichi, Kazuko and Rob. You guys made our trip to Japan one never to forget. From Japanese ghosts to playing football on the top of a skyscraper, we loved every second of it. Damn we miss Japan already!
Next stop: Destination #19: Party like it is 1999 in Copenhagen
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