Thanks to Qantas, we arrived a day late to start our tour in Tokyo. That meant the day we were supposed to use to recover from the overnight flight (note, flying business class on Qantas is pretty much a waste of time) was lost, and so our first morning was spent bleary eyed and trying to pay attention to a not terribly exciting agenda of meeting out group for the first time, a very swift walk through Hamarikyu Gardens, then a cruise down the Sumida River to Sensoji. Disembarking at Sensoji, the Asahi beer company building is pretty much the first thing you see:
That golden ‘turd’ was supposed to be one of three, upright, to look like falling drops of beer. But the people in the building behind objected.
There were two sights to see at Sensoji. First was Nakamise market/arcade. It was a tad busy,
but there were plenty of quiet places, and quiet people, including this guy with his three adorable dogs (all the dogs we saw in Japan were adorable!)
The market stretches between the two gates of the Asakusa Kannon Temple.
After our guide Kyoko gave us a quick and dirty introduction to Buddhist temples, and things like the fortune telling boxes, we had lunch at Gonpachi, a restaurant which apparently inspired a scene in Kill Bill. I did not know this at the time, and wouldn’t have cared (omigod I was tired!). Doug’s and my first experience of a traditional multicourse Japanese meal, including cold soba and then drinking sobayu, the soba cooking water, with the dipping sauce afterwards. (Delicious!) I loved this meal, as I did every meal we had in Japan. Unfortunately the rest of our group were mildly conservative veering towards complete pills on the issue of odd food (how they can have booked a trip to Japan without expecting (a) new and different food or (b) raw fish, I have no idea) so this was also our first experience of listening to various people be quite damn rude about food in front of the guide and the people serving the meal.
I love raw fish, for the record. We never had any that wasn’t first class, and only one – oni, sea urchin – was a ‘perhaps not again’ experience. And I loved the sequence of dishes and all the different traditions about eating different things.
Anyway, after that, I was done. Doug staggered off to the Tokyo National Museum,
but I went back to our five star, staggeringly gorgeous hotel opposite the imperial palace (which we had missed out an entire night of, sob!)
and noodled around until he came back.
But our day’s adventure was not over! Oh no. We decided to skip the group meal and have room service, choosing pizza (don’t laugh) because we only wanted something light.
When the waiter came, I was in the bed, hiding under the sheets because the complimentary bathrobe was too small to cover my boobs. But as the waiter did his thing, I was also hiding my laugh because…wow. Five star silver service in your bedroom has to be seen to be believed! It was more elaborate than kabuki, and the guy – kid, really – was so very formal and careful and incredibly polite over…pizza.
It was fantastic pizza (and man, the desserts!). The four cheese one came with the hotel’s own honey as an optional dressing, and it was the most delicious honey I’ve ever had – also great on the pizza! (Yes, I know, but it was.) So even room service was an event 🙂
The first day was pretty much the nicest weather we had for a week, and the next day at Mt Fuji was much damper and cloudier. So this was the best picture we could get of Fuji-san:
The scenery in Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park was still beautiful – still lots of snow around – and Doug was thrilled to see wild Japanese macaques in the forest at the road side, as well as red deer and serows.
We descended the mountain to take a boat ride across Lake Ashi, on which several fake Dutch ships were already plying their tourist trade
And had lunch on the other side of the lake at the Highland Hotel.
Still stuffed from this, on our return to Tokyo, we went out in a group of four – the four of us who arrived a day late – to Nobu for a degustation meal. The couple we were stuck with had seemed perfectly pleasant up to now (although I gave her serious side eye for announcing she wanted to ‘collect’ all the silly english on signs – this couple never even learned to say ‘thank you’ in Japanese), but really revealed their bogan side at this dinner (which was amazing and innovative and everything you expect from one of the top restaurants in the world). The bloke announced – after we’d already been asked if we had any allergies etc, and been served our first course – that he couldn’t eat raw fish, so could they cook the sushi for him (and they also cooked his sashimi, instead of telling him to fuck off as I would have). Mrs decided she deserved compensation for the delayed arrival so proceeded to try to drink the house dry, despite the requested limit for alcohol costs our tour leader had given us. Mr also had to drink half my sake as well as numerous glasses of beer, and grew increasingly obnoxious and loudmouthed. Mrs also announced she was a creationist after getting into a fight with Doug about evolution – without revealing her prejudices first.
I wondered what the fuck I’d gotten into, and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. (And then Mr decided to ignore and shun me the rest of the trip, although I have no idea why. I was glad to avoid them though, especially after seeing the way he behaved the rest of the time.) Although the meal really was memorable, my memories of that night are forever spoiled by having been stuck with them, and although it was a nice thought to let us experience what the others had had their first night in Tokyo, in the end, it caused nothing but trouble for us.
Oh well. I would so go back to Nobu again though. Not only for the food but the terrific, patient service and kind advice to the newbies.
And that was literally all the time we had in Tokyo! So will have to go back one day. I haven’t seen anything really – including a clear view of the palace we were literally across the road from.
Then we were off to the Alps, to the northwest of Tokyo. See ya in the next post.