Tea Gardens
I'll leave out the boring details of packing and getting ready to depart. But we did fit a few more things into our last day, amidst sniffs and sad farewells.
The Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
looks really pretty, even in the rain. We wandered around, recounting
fairy-tales to each other. In particular the Tea House was very
picturesque. I'm sort of surprised that nobody in Japan has yet
invented a ceremonial way to serve coffee, but it's only the tea that
gets the treatment.
We added a new rule to our food finding methodology: if two places smell
equally nice, go to the one that is more popular with the locals. This
resulted in having lunch at a Raman bar. Ramen is basically a big bowl of
soup with lots of stuff (like roast pork) and ramen noodles in. It was
delicious - definitely one to repeat. I wonder if anywhere in London does
it?
To finish the evening, we had another Shabu-Shabu, this time using a gas
ring set in the middle of the table. I'm very glad we resolved not to
have any western food while over here - trying new things sometimes takes
courage, but we can have western food any time we like once home.
Parts of the holiday were spent sick, tired, lost and frustrated. But
overall we had a wonderful time. Research we did before hand definitely
paid off, finding things out once there isn't always easy - we were lucky
to have a hotel with an internet connection and a printer we could use
for maps. Even so, there were things we didn't get to do that we'd hoped
to see. No theatre. No visit to a traditional bath house. No sword
making. Nothing on World War II or the atomic bomb. In particular, we
were disappointed with their national museum's total lack of coverage of
that period of their history.
Be polite. We can't say this enough: BE POLITE. If you make a effort to
show you are trying to be courteous, all the Japanese we met would fall
over themselves to be helpful back.
Bring a phrase book and an English-Japanese dictionary. Just being able to
point at the page will be of immense help to you.
Would I want to live there? No. Good for a 2 week or month holiday, but if
you don't learn the language, anywhere but Tokyo will feel extremely isolating.
Where do I think Japan is going? I can't say, and neither could any of the
Japanese I asked. There are many beautiful things in Japan, and many
contradictions. I think it will be influencing world culture for years to
come, but in which direction I cannot predict.
Thank you too to everyone who helped make our holiday the experience it was.
I would also welcome feedback on any broken links, or further resources
I can link to that others visiting Japan might find helpful:
Omotesando Avenue
Elvis is alive and well, and serving customers in the shop that serves
as the Tokyo Rockabilly headquarters, just off Omotesando Avenue.
The avenue is a very crowded 'youth' shopping area, disappointingly
full of western brands. We did find one curio shop, that looked like
a haven from the swinging 60s, where I bought Louise some things to
match her Kimono, but other than that we just
pigged out on crepes (ice cream, banana and chocolate for me, strawberry
and whipped cream for Louise).
Yoyogi park was, alas, deserted due to the rain. We'd been there on the
first day, and this was an absolute contrast. No sign it had ever been
anything other than a boring streach of paving near a busy station. One
of the guidebooks described Japanese Punks as the only punks in the world
who clean up after themselves. Certainly we've noticed a strong
environmentalist concern from many organisations over here. I wonder how
that squares with whaling?
Ikebukuro
The area around Ikebukuro tube station, near our hotel, is actually
pretty lively in the evenings. It seems to have a little of everything.
There's masses of shops, both western and oriental. There's the business
area, and the parts where the homeless try to doss down out of the rain.
There's the glitzy brash gambling and red light area. And there's the
arty area, where anyone who things they can plunk a guitar comes along
to sing. They are there, not to busk, but just to perform and meet each
other, which is pretty cool. My favourite bit was seeing, not thirty
meters from our hotel's back door, a man teaching a woman some dancing
moves. He was a fantastic dancer, like something from a pop music video,
and they were in a world of their own, just doing their thing. I like that.
Talking of the homeless, Japan seems to have a fairly aggressive stance
on unemployment. There are a lot of 'grunt' jobs, like standing outside
a carpark all day with a glowing batton, waiting to wave people in and
out. At one intersection, which had a working belisha beacon, there were
no less than three people with battons, matching uniforms and ties directing
the people across. (By the way, ALL men in Japan wear a tie. It is a law or
something.) This was a little strange as not 200 meters down the street was
a hectically busy 10 way intersection with not a helper in sight (although
it did get invaded a little later by 3 cars full of policemen in matching
dinky plastic rain hats).
Sayonara Nippon
There's not much to say about the flight back. We had a last look from
the 25th floor observatory in the hotel, met our original guide at 6:50am
and plied him with questions all the way to the airport. Like, does anyone
in Japan really keep a skunk as a pet? BA006 took off
somewhat later than the scheduled 13:00, and many many tedious hours later
we were back fighting the traffic in England. Virgin has a much better
entertainment setup than British Airways.
So what did we think of Japan and the Japanese?
Afterword
Thank you to everyone who has been patient, waiting for me to finish
writing up this diary. It took a while, so please do
send feedback as it will be greatly appreciated.
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