I am in awe at the size and density of Tokyo. I remember my first trip to New York City and thinking that THIS was a city and clearly understanding why many of my east coast friends thought of San Francisco as a sleepy little burb. Well, Tokyo is to New York City what New York City is to SF. I can’t and won’t even begin to describe the physical layers on layers of restaurants, stores, back alleys apartments and parks mixed in with a deep ritualistic cultural, history and (to me at least) incomprehensible written and spoken language. Kind of a happy metaphysical punch in the face and kick in the groin at the same time.
What an amazing experience. I was so fortunate to be able to go there with a close friend and also someone who grew up there, that I can’t compare it to “traveling”. It was much more about getting to know a place and them through their experiences there.
Arriving on Sat the 7th, Robert and I navigated the daunting Shinjuku train station to find our nearby hotel on the East side. A cozy LITTLE place with just enough room for two beds and bathroom. A nice enough, cheap ($60 a night) and central place to spend some time if you are headed to Tokyo.
We took it easy the first night and ended up getting some dinner nearby where I got my first experience with the amazingly high level of service in Japan and Robert’s language skills. I was impressed by both. We ended up in a small plates place where I was trying to sort out the all Japanese menu through the cigarette smoke (remember smoking in restaurants, gack!). We wandered around a bit and ended up on the West side of Shinjuku in the skybar at the Keio Plaza Hotel, on the 45th floor over looking part of the enormity of Tokyo. This was the hotel (and neighborhood) that was in much of “Lost in Translation”
The next day we headed over a couple blocks to the Shinjuku Goyen Park. This was to be one of the highlights of the trip and it was. It was the last half of the Cherry Blossom season and is one of the best parks for experiencing it. It was simply breathtaking, as if it were raining blossoms. They covered the trees, the ground and floated through the air. The colors of the park were spectacular; the vibrant greens, whites, pinks and reds of the trees and bushes, the greens and browns of the grass, and the blue and white of the sky and clouds.
For dinner we headed over to the West Side and met up with Tomoko and her parents, Keyoko and Toshi for some ShabuShabu. I’ve never had this before but have heard much about it. Check out this link if you are curious what it is.
Beyond the amazing presentation what blew me away was the service. This was an 8 course dinner and for each course the waitress would describe in detail the dish and how it was prepared. At one point we had an Udon type soup and I asked about the noodles. The waitress asked her manager, he looked the specific special noodles up on the internet and printed up a page to bring to us. These guys get no tips BTW. This is just amazing service and attention to detail. Makes me want to spit on any waiter I see in SF.
2 comments:
Its so gret to see, hear and really learn about a place I know nothing about and really never thought of before. You're definitly lucky to go with someone from there, I think its the way to do it! Great blogging! And don't worry, BOTH dogs miss you and would love to visit again!
Lisa
It's fascinating to read about your impressions and perspectives on Tokyo, especially since we were there together and experiencing the same things. Your right to say there are so many layers to Tokyo (old traditional culture, etiquette, service, postmodernism, aesthetic presentation, art, language, western influences, food, religion, transit, architecture, hyper-consumerism, intense population, and much more). I mentioned to you during the trip that Japan is like the United States of Asia. Before I had traveled to Japan a friend once told me that I might not be too impressed with Tokyo because it is just like an American city, but I found this to not be true. Tokyo is like the US in that it has similar visual symbols (dept. stores, food, and fashion), but is like looking into a mirror and seeing what America could be if it was perhaps less conservative (we also talked about Tokyo architecture and both admitted that we saw buildings like no where else we had traveled and that the US is conservative in this regard). Tokyo often gets pinned as resembling the film Blade Runner, but it's not as dark. It's like a plastic, shiny, pop version of Blade Runner. Anway, it was good to travel to Tokyo with you. A week later I still feel like I'm there. BTW, I didn't realize that the bar we had our first drink at was in the film Lost in Translation.
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