We've just arrived in Hong Kong after 6 days in Tokyo. This was the first place that none of us had ever been to - so we really felt foreign for the first time.
Fortunately, we were helped immensely to get oriented by contacts of friends of ours, Gregorio, thanks for introducing us to Simone and Tomoko, who were very generous with their time and advice. Takashi, your restaurant recommendations and encouragement to visit Kyoto were really helpful.
Our stay in Japan was really memorable and left us wanting more. Katayoun is still saying how much she misses Tokyo. It will be hard to do the trip or the place justice on an email, but here are the highlights...
Two earthquakes >6.5 in 3 days. For us seismic illiterates, this was quite something. We experienced the first at 7.56pm while at a Robata restaurant in Roppongi (more about the $40 prawns later). Lots of shaking glasses for about 15 seconds. The second was at 5.23am. Nina had just woken up and found the room trembling while she was sending emails. As she leapt up to see the kids Anahita woke up and asked 'Mummy, why are you shaking?'.
The building was literally swaying from side to side and on the 42nd floor, this was quite something. What was more unnerving was the creaking of the building afterwards. Now we know why all the lamps, vases, ornaments etc are fixed to solid surfaces! Anyway, quite an introduction to Japan. Anahita has been rather reluctant to venture into elevators and trains ever since!
Tokyo neon. The city is really rather grey and unattractive at first sight. And huge. When you look more closely the buildings are really rather amazing - the architects have taken more risks here and the skyscrapers are quite something. The whole place comes alive at night when all the lights come on and it really is strangely mesmerizing.
The food. It is hard to overstate how much we enjoyed eating in Japan. Raw fish, cooked fish, vegetables, noodles, famous cutlets. Beer, sake, various bean concoctions, miso and various gelatinous things we can't even name. Tokyo has seriously good food and we didn't even go to the many Michelin starred restaurants. We did have a particularly spectacular meal at a Robata place in Roppongi (and I'm talking after the earthquake). The concierge reliably told us that this place would be reasonably priced. So we went for it. There was much chorused welcome and repetition of our orders. We had amazing grilled vegetables and Anahita was moved to exclaim 'this was the best mushroom I have ever had!'. And it was. We ordered amazing tiger prawns and 2 vibrantly coloured red snappers. All delicious.
The girls and Nina also tried baby crabs, grilled in their crunchy shells, eaten whole (yes, including the shells....). The fish was the best we have ever eaten. Which was reflected when we got the bill - each prawn was $40.
Turns out it redefined 'catch of the day'. We were relieved that the girls managed to keep hold of each morsel in chopsticks.... To be fair, we generally ate very well and enjoyed amazing sushi and sashimi. One of the highlights was Maisen, the king of Tonkatsu and the restaurant in Ueno Park, Innsyoutei, an amazing wooden structure with fabulous views and exquisitely presented food. Anahita's coined the phrase: 'if we're having fish, I'm in!'. Alessandro did a 5am visit to the Tzukiji fish market - where he saw over 400 tuna the size of Anahita in one room, and that was just the retail market. He also had the freshest sushi ever at one of the stalls.
Temples, parks and gardens. It would be worth going back to Japan just to see these. In Tokyo we saw the serious and serene Meiji shrine and the incense laden Senso-ji shrine. The historic highlight has to be Kyoto - we only went for a day and in truth we could have spent several days there.
Temple after temple, garden after garden. Japanese maples, cherry trees and beautiful views. Two of the highlights were the enigmatic Ryoan-ji Zen garden, designed in the 14th century, with 15 rocks (but you can only ever see 14), and the serene Nanzen-ji, with the 3-space gate ('emptiness', 'no discrimination' and 'seek nothing'). The old district of Gion was a mixture of Amsterdam and Florence - canals, bikes and lovely old craft stores. In general, Kyoto is Florence to Tokyo's Milan - elegant, a nice place to linger and a place we'll go back to. It was just a pity we only had a day as were told early mornings and evenings are lovely.
People. Tokyo is a huge, sprawling city of 12m people - and you feel it. Crossing the road in some places is like negotiating a wall of people. The train stations are crowded and very, very busy. Buildings are close together and everything is vertical and crammed. Oddly, though, people have a strong sense of their own personal space, in spite of the density.
The hotel. We stayed at the Park Hyatt, featured in 'Lost in Translation' - one of those 'start on the 42nd floor, double height atrium, view of Mt Fuji from the 47th floor pool' places. It was the epitome of cool elegance and the concierge basically made our trip - every suggestion a winner and a lot of time saved. Amazing food, and a pretty good blueberry muffin. And very good value, most of the time. Plus nice touches like air conditioning that got gradually cooler as you went into the hotel, elevator lights that got gradually brighter the further up you went. And service that felt like - well service - I.e. there to make your stay better. We recommend it.
Spending the day with Ina. Our friend Ina had a business trip to Tokyo and we spent a lovely day (in a tropical rainstorm) walking through the Asakusa district and exploring the Senso-ji temple. We all got soaked, lit incense sticks and had our fortunes read and ate Tempura. Anahita, Ina and Alessandro got 'regular fortunes' (numbers 68, 93 and 44), Kats got a 'bad fortune' and Nina got a 'good fortune'. We had a lovely day - thank you Ina for crossing the world to see us!
Retail therapy. It would be possible to shop a lot in Tokyo. Particular highlights included: the used Kimono shop in Omotesando. We discovered a lovely store in Tokyo that sells second hand kimonos - Nina got a beautiful black one with Mt Fuji embroidery; the girls got a cotton one each with tye-dyed obi - and yes, Kats got a 'Hello Kitty' one. It was a fun few hours spent before we were caught in a deluge. Other moments of retail terror included 'Kiddyland' - 7 floors of toys - once is enough in a lifetime!
The differences. Tokyo challenged us because of the small differences in everyday things. Here are just a few.....
exquisite packaging for even the most basic of things - everything comes beautifully wrapped - it makes you want to buy things
socks with individual toes - to prevent sweaty digits - not sure whether we like this....
toilets with more options than most of us knew existed. Family consensus is that heated seats are not pleasant. Anahita is permanently affected by the whole bathroom experience - each visit preceded by 'mummy, how does the toilet flush?'.
pedestrian crossings with signs that say ' please do not smoke while crossing'. Why?
taxis with doiley-like lace seat covers and drivers who wear white gloves
and doors that open and close automatically. The taxis themselves look rather old fashioned, a bit like the old soviet Zils
pictures for everything that's written, so you eventually figure out where you are going, what you are eating etc - turns out that pictograms are rather useful
buildings with 7 floors of restaurants - of course it makes sense when space is scarce
'Hello Kitty' - more plastic than we ever thought possible - and we will be very glad when this craze passes
individual umbrella holders with keys in public places - so cute! And everyone carries transparent umbrellas - we know this because we were caught in aa drenching tropical storm two days in a row!
removing shoes everywhere - which makes you realise how dirty they are and how clean traditional Japanese interiors are
extreme courtesy and politeness which in turn made us very courteous. Of course when we left we had figured out that it was possible for people to be politely rude, or rudely polite, to us!
gelatinous textures. This is an aspect of Japanese cuisine we found a little tricky - it is simply a texture we are not accustomed to and made some of the more exotic looking morsels hard to take
no bins: we had real trouble disposing of garbage - people don't eat or drink in public so never have to dispose of cans, cups etc - or so it seemed
very limited public seating - this was quite surprising - very few places to sit anywhere - people just seem to stand
manhole covers with flowers embossed on them - why?
clubs for unemployed men in parks - where they get food in return for attending a public concert
vending machines with some very odd-sounding names - 'Calpis', 'Pocari sweat' and 'Wonda' iced coffee. An experience to just find water!
babysitting.....Alessandro and Nina decided to have dinner on their own. The cost was twice the price of the meal - but you get a lot for your money. English speaking 'Maki' supplied by the 'Royal Baby Saloon' ('RBS', actually) arrived complete with her origami kit, beadmaking, iron and a whole 90 minute education programme. She left us with a full page performance report about our girls written in English. Worth it for the entertainment value. If we'd known, we'd have left some maths homework too!
It was an intense 6 days - and we'll be back. Hong Kong already a contrast.