We arrive to Tokyo, our last tourist stop in Japan, thoroughly exhausted but satisfied. The last two weeks have been a whistle-stop tour of this beautiful country, which has taken a toll on our travelling battery levels, but we’re glad we’ve done it this way. Which is why, when we make it to Tokyo, we decide to stay in one place, and take it easy. Our first night isn’t spent wandering the bright streets, eating and drinking everything, but having a night in with snacks and an early night. Bliss.
We enjoy our first lazy morning in a long time, and it’s Guide Collins on duty this week (with some help from Lewis and Karl, thanks guys!) who directs us to Yoyogi Park. An immense woodland in the middle of this sprawling city. I didn’t think there were any parks in Tokyo so it’s a lovely surprise for me. Unfortunately, you can’t run here as it’s a sacred space, so you have to take it slow and appreciate the calmness of this area.
After the peace and tranquility of the park, it’s time for its polar opposite, Takeshita Street. A little rat run full of subversive fashions, capsule shops, souvenir shops and street eats. This used to be where young fashion-forward brands would use young people as models to show off their styles. A place renowned for its fashion, a bit like Camden and its punks, seems to have gone the same way… full of tourists, a shadowy gimic of the place it used to be, the locals having found somewhere else. We’re hardly the most fashion-forward, so it’s a bit of fun for us to enjoy exploring the tourist-geared shops… And try some of the bizarre street food!
Next up, we’re off to see the famous, giant, scramble pedestrian crossing I’m Shibuya. Apparently 2800 people can cross here at once.
Already pretty bushed, we head home for some more R&R. We find a store that sells fresh fruit and veg, even potatoes! And enjoy a rare home-cooked meal. It actually costs more to make your own food here, but it’s a nice little break from the ready meals and takeout. This country also has a whole thing with baths, so even in the tiniest apartments there is a bath, and we thoroughly enjoy another lazy night in.
A Game Of Two Halves
Our first stop today is Samurai Restaurant Time, which has replaced the tourist-favourite Robot Restaurant. James is given trousers to wear over his shorts, and we’re both given kimonos, that they call “happy shirts” to wear. It’s nice having James have to adhere to a dress code for once, although I have no idea why! As we sit down to our tables, two glowsticks are handed to us, and it’s time to learn the Japanese art of glowstick appreciation. The only way I can describe the next couple of hours is absolutely bonkers, not least because the first warm-up act we see is basically a burlesque show which we aren’t allowed to take photos of. I wonder if I’ve made a massive mistake of what I’ve booked us in for. Once the show actually starts however, the stage is full of kitsch, over-the-top, colourful, outlandish outfits, sets and floats, loosely depicting the samurai era it has in the title. I bet the samurai would be proud to be represented in all this spangly glory! I’ll let the images do the rest of the speaking…
I could go on, but I think you get the idea! We also get to enjoy some sake, and tea for free. A slightly different tea experience to that in Kyoto!
Next up is a baseball game. Nathan and Lisa on the Ha Giang Loop recommended we go to one, as baseball is Japan’s biggest sport. We’re looking forward to seeing this respectful and gracious people go wild for sports. We also seem to have accidentally gotten a pretty decent view.
Knowing absolutely nothing about baseball, other than its similarity to rounders, we spend most of the first nine innings trying to figure out what all the things on the scoreboard mean. It’s certainly entertaining, and you realise just how hard it is to hit a home run. Most of the time, if a batter does actually hit the ball into the sky, they just get caught out by the fielders with their huge gloves catching the balls with ease. Otherwise there is a lot of strikes out, balls being hit behind the pitch and getting a retake, and where the batter intentionally hits the ball to ground to sacrifice themselves so their teammates can get around one more base. It’s actually pretty tactical it seems.
The other special part of the game are the beer girls, who run around the crowds with kegs on their backs, pouring out beer for waving punters. They probably do more work than anyone on the pitch tonight.
Beyond deciphering what’s happening, the most entertaining parts of this experience are the fans. Each player has their own song, so as they come up to bat, the fans start their specific chant. The fans of the bowling side remain respectfully silent. Not a single boo to drown them out. We’re sitting in the home-ground side of the Swallows, with our opponents, the Chiba Mariners, directly opposite. They are a co-ordinated force! The sound from the other side of the pitch is actually deafening at points. They jump and wave and sing and clap as one giant block. They do this, non-stop, whilst their players are up to bat. It looks amazing from our side, and exhausting. We’re glad we accidentally didn’t book in that section!
Our fans, by contrast, seem pretty lacklustre. The songs take their time to build up, and many just copy the other but with a different name in place. The Venezuelan and Dominican Republic batters get tunes with Latin twists. There are little plastic baseball bats that fans use to ‘clap’, and they use these as accompaniment, or to do specific waving movements. The absolute best part of the display though, is when a run is finally scored, and suddenly everyone puts up their shiny, tiny, toy umbrellas, and bops them up and down, creating a shimmering sea of light.
Sadly, we only see this happen three times. Three! It’s surely a tense game, but it is loooooooong. Four hours by the end of it. The Mariners fans…? Still jumping up and down like it was the first five minutes. The game ends on a draw of three runs each after four hours and 12 innings. I don’t think we’ll be turning into baseball fans any time soon.
Borderless, Tokyo Tower and Back to a Walking Tour
Today we’re going to the TeamLabs: Borderless exhibition. A big visual art exhibition, featuring huge wall-to-wall projections, and clever uses of lighting and mirrors.
We quickly pop over to the Tokyo Tower to get a look at what was once the tallest Tower in the Japan.
Then it’s time for our first walking tour in Japan. It’s surely a very different experience to in other countries. Our guide doesn’t offer much information unless asked, more leading us to different areas of shinjuku and pointing out bits to notice, and answering our questions in between. He’s very knowledgeable, so we’re unsure if this is a cultural aspect or a just-him aspect, to not fill our heads with facts and figures about the area without it needing to be pried from him.
First stop is a tiny, quaint alley way that was apparently the only space here not controlled by the mafia. There are tiny little eateries all down it, vying for business. Apparently the mafia ended most of its rule here when the economic crash happened thirty years ago, I forget why.
We then walk over to the government building that has a free to access, 360°, top-floor view of Tokyo. It’s incredible to see the sprawling city, high-rise towers, and huge park, all for free no less. Apparently you can see Mount Fuji on a clear day. We’re not so lucky, but we can see where Lost In Translation was filmed.
This whole area was apparently originally a water treatment plant, but has all been redeveloped now. Just as in many parts of London, much of Tokyo was flattened due to air raid bombings. This gave them the chance to rebuild and redevelop. Much of the buildings here are apparently decades old, but you wouldn’t be able to tell at all, many look modern and stylish. There’s even one that looks like the Atari logo for any older nerds out there.
As we head back to the main part of Shinjuku, we stop at a shrine and ring a bell for a blessing. He tells us a bit about Shinto being a way of life, rather than a religion, and how the hydrangea flower symbolises Spring rainy season. It reminds me of home 🙂
Next up we head back to Shinjuku proper. Our guide reassures us that this isn’t the red light district, no no no, after all, look at all the children and prams being pushed around. He’s not lying, there are kids being pushed around in prams down streets with brothels and massage parlors next to restaurants and arcade stores. Just because the (illegal) sex trade houses itself next to PG-rated vendors and eateries doesn’t necessarily make this somewhere I’d want to bring a child… but what do I know. This is Japan after all.
We’re told about the latest development in Japan of superstar hosts. ‘Famous’ women and men from social media and even shows like X-Factor (or similar) have found a way to make money by creating their own themed ‘host cafes’. What were typically cafes or bars where you would pay for some company of a woman dressed in a slutty maid outfit, is now a bit of a Theme Park it seems. They create cafes or bars based on their brand. You can even ‘level-up’ your host with accessories or outfits based on how much you spend on them. Gaming becomes real life. Our guide is very matter-of-fact about the sex-trade aspect to many of these bars, there’s even a whole corner of a building where you can go to find your ideal host. Women stand on the pavements in huge black robes, with just their tiny legs and killer heels visible, hinting at the true nature of what they’re selling underneath. But people do go to these places just for company, it’s not all quickies out back we’re told. Our Portuguese tour companion is most confused why anyone would pay someone to spend time with them, without a happy ending. He seems completely lost to the concept of loneliness and the inate need for companionship for all humans, something Japan is now sadly quite well known to be lacking, hence the rise of these companionship bars.
We have a bit of a tour around the Golden Gai district, an area that used to be brothels, but is now tiny, tiny bars.
Our final stop is another shrine to go and get a blessing from a giant, wooden penis, to give us that “big dick energy”. Our guide says these things with the straightest of faces that we really haven’t been able to tell at all if he’s taking all this incredibly seriously or loves a bit of banter with the Westerners. To be fair, Japan has a whole penis festival. That weird juxtaposition of uptight vs openly celebrating penises, only in Japan.
We say goodbye to our awkward guide and tour companion, and decide to give sushi another go. This time, we stick to stuff we know and successfully avoid the urchin (although some eel makes its way onto our plates somehow).
Furiosa
Not much to say for today, other than we went to an arcade, got amazed by some people’s immense abilities on games, played some weird Japanese metal on the equivalent of Guitar Hero, watched Furiosa at the cinema (it’s such a nice break to go to the movies!), and went to see the free light show on the aforementioned government building (the biggest free one in the world?).
Run, Walk and Eat, Eat, Eat
Our final day in Tokyo is spent finally ticking off a priority task… Parkrun! We had tried to fit another one in everywhere we could but it just wasn’t happening, so there was no way we were missing this one, not even with an 8am start. We make our way there and quickly get talking to the other many foreigners who are as bonkers as we are. We are given the pre-run briefing entirely in Japanese. Thankfully they also have a map. I can’t imagine doing Highbury Fields without understanding how many laps you have to do of it! We line up, and we’re off. James speeds off, and I… dodge the start-line marshal by sliding into the mud, covering my whole left side. I quickly do the maths in my head of whether I have time to quickly clean myself off, but James has dared me to get sub-30, and I’m certain that’ll be impossible in my current state of fitness with a wash break. So I run the full 5k covered in mud, as the marshalls film my muddy hand waving back. On the plus side, I see a beautiful fluffy cat standing gracefully at the side, as a woman tries to introduce her terrified dog to it. And the course is really quite beautiful, flat, and paved (except of course for the muddy side spot I decided to clean up with my trainers). James smashes it like he’s not had months off running, and I beat the 30 minute target. Mud washed off, we head back home to get properly cleaned up.
Our next mission today is to go to a Ghibli store. There’s one an hour’s walk away, so we decide to get all our steps in today and walk the round trip. Broken up with lunch at an okonomiyaki place, the noodles cooked on a big metal plate. It’s still a winner.
Our last outing for the day takes us to Golden Gai, a district of teeny tiny bars. Some are themed, others are just bars. They are so small and old they circumvent the smoking laws. Only about 3-5 people can sit or stand in any of these places at any one time. James has earmarked a metal bar for us, but it’s jam packed, no-one looks keen to leave. We try out a few others, but like Goldilocks, they are either too full, too smokey, or too loud. Eventually, we manage to find one that is just right, enjoying a pint where we can talk to one another and not inhale lung cancer whilst doing so. We’ve missed this life a bit.
Our final meal is having Japanese bbq, where a grill is setup in front of us, and we cook up a storm.
And that’s our time in Tokyo. We sure didn’t live it up or large or crazy like maybe most tourists do, but we did enjoy ourselves nevertheless, cooking, watching films, lying in, doing parkrun, living a bit of a normal life. Who knows what our next two weeks will bring with WWOOFing?!
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Adventure – exploring different districts of Tokyo, from below with parkrun, to above at the top tower
Excitement – seeing beams of light curve and getting lost in TeamLab, the absolute bonkers ‘Samurai’ show
Trauma – getting lost in Shinjuku Station all but one time
1 Comment
Wow sounds an incredible experience, from the amazing show , light experience and 4 hour baseball game. I’m a bit worried our Bbq’s will be a bit bland after all your food adventures 🤣. Amazing, how the Hydrangea symbolises Spring, the ones outside James’s window are in full bloom 😁. Glad you found,a Park Run experience too, allbeit a bit muddy. ❤️