Darr and I celebrated a big wedding anniversary (45 years) with a big trip in big style, in the very hospitable, polite, and accommodating country of Japan.
Japan doesn't have a hair out of place.
It is neat and tidy and orderly and well organized. Every aspect of Japanese life has a sense of artistry and design and beauty. Whether it is the packaging for a watermelon, or a perfect table setting, or the perfectly clean sidewalks. And service is impeccable. Even taxi drivers are well dressed and drape the seats in a lacy white cloth. It's like sitting on a doily. …
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| Public art centipede |
We used
Kensington Tours to make our travel arrangements. They saw to our every need; we were escorted from the train station to the hotel even if it was a block away. They had staff at the ready to help us with transfers on the bullet trains. We were amply attended to by tour guides and warmly welcomed at our hotels. Service with a bow.
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| Art everywhere, Park Hotel breakfast room |
Tokyo is huge and tall. We were surprised to find that the lobby of the
Park Hotel was on the 31st floor. Our room was on the 36th floor with a view of the
Tokyo Tower. The next two nights we were "sky-dining" at restaurants on the 41st and 42nd floors of office buildings.
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| Nijubashi bridge, entrance to the palace grounds |
We started our tour at the
Tokyo Imperial Palace, a huge park surrounded by moats and stone walls, the home of the royal family. After 260 years of Shogunate rule
Emperor Meiji came into power, banned the Samurai class system, made education mandatory, and thoroughly modernized Japan. No wonder he gets his own Shinto shrine, an honor normally reserved for dieties.
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| Empress Shoken's garden |
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Gate to Meiji Shrine
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Next stop:
The Meiji Shrine, 172 acres of forest, a beautiful quiet oasis in a big noisy city. It was our first shrine so we were suitably awed, but after seeing several grander on the trip, owe realized it was just a good starter shrine. The beloved Empress XX also has her own garden filled with waterfalls, water lillies and general soothing loveliness.
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| Asakusa |
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| Festival participant, Asakusa |
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| Tsukiji Outer Market |
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| World's largest oysters |
May 17th anniversary proper--After breakfast the tour guide took us to the
Tsukiji Outer Market. It was hard to have an appetite for the various fishy offerings, but Darr did manage to slurp down two of the world's largest oysters, standing in a dripping wet little shack where he could help himself to lemon and tabasco.
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| Yukiko Hata at Seizan Gallery |
That afternoon we went on a tour of five art galleries in Ginza. Joey the chauffeur welcomed us in a luxury vehicle, filled the back seat with salty snacks and a handwritten post card. Joey had the tough job of delivering and picking us up at 5 art galleries in the rain. We saw a range of artwork, old and new, traditonal and modern at
Galerie Chene Tokyo, the
Shihodo Gallery, and my favorite
Seizan Gallery, with a great show by
Yukiko Hata. We also caught an interesting photo exhibit at the
Sony Imaging Gallery "Where Water Gazes Back" and met the photographer, Tomimo+Akina.
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| The Nikon Museum |
Then the
piece de resistance for Darr, a guided tour of the
Nikon Museum .The museum featured every camera Darr has ever looked at, dreamed about, owned, or worked with. I caught him kneeling in worship there.
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| Sea urchin flan |
Our last day in Tokyo we were free of adult (tour guide) supervision, so we did brave things like take the subway all by ourselves. We walked from the hotel to Ginza where I shopped at the beautiful 11-story
Mitsukoshi department store. I bought an Issey Miyake shirt which I was surprised to see folded into a 5 inch square.
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| Chunichi Dragon fans at Tokyo Dome |
Then we took the subway to the
Tokyo Dome, where we had tickets to a baseball game featuring the Yomiyuri Giants of Tokyo versus the Chunichi Dragons of Nagoya. The sense of quiet and decorum associated with Japanese people is thrown out with the first pitch. Baseball in Japan is loud. My Apple Watch warned me twice about dangerous decibel levels. Enormous fan sections yell, sing, chant, dance, and strike up a brass band
the entire time their team is at bat. A girl band danced and sang on the field, during the solemn period we dedicate to the National Anthem. Children dressed as sushi had a field race.
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| It's all about fun in Shibuyu |
When one of our Facebook friends saw that we were in Japan he posted one word:
Shibuyu. So we felt we had to go, an area whose sole purpose is the having of fun. Sitting at an outdoor restaurant, trying to cook our Wagyu beef with chopsticks on a small Hibachi, was like being in the reviewing stands at a parade, a pageantry of Japanese style. Japanese girls with their perfect shiny straight black hair and porcelain skin, walked by, one out-glamming the next. They look like delicate flowers until you look down and see their feet are in rugged black workboots or high platform shoes.
Takayama
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| R and R in the Ryokan |
‘Just make sure that part of your stay is in a
ryokan,” a friend told me.
From the wild city to the mild countryside…we took two trains to get to
Takayama where we stayed at the
Hidatei Hanougi. No longer battling crowds in the city subway or trying to tell the taxi driver where our hotel was, we were now plunged into a soothing environment with waterfalls and koi and bridges and gardens and a wooden waterwheel. Taking off our shoes was the biggest exertion we had to make for the next two days.
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| Traditional Japanese dinner |
We had our favorite guide in Takayama, she was a chef, and took us to the farmer’s market and explained what miso is, why they fancy pickled vegetables, and a power point on the history and brewing of sake.
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| There is more sake in Japan than beer at a Super Bowl |
After breaking it to her that I didn't drink sake and that Darr didn't like it, we went to a hip cafe called
Ember which served delicious latte and almond croissants. Because our guide was from a family of athletes, she was able to answer our many questions about Japanese baseball. Plus she was dazzled by Darr’s story of covering spring training in Japan, photographing the likes of pitcher Yu Darvish.
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| Festival float |
We walked along the river to the
Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall. We had been in Spain during Semana Santa and thought we had seen the most amazing parades of our days of gold and silver floats. But, no, the Japanese floats are far more impressive.
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| Novelty cameras |
And we stumbled upon the Takayama Camera Museum (Takayamakamara, sorry no link) featuring vintage cameras and a large display of novelty cameras. Who has a Charlie Tuna camera in the their collection? Well, some of Darr’s friends do.
After our fill of ryokan rest, we were ready for the next adventure…Kanazawa and Kyoto, to follow in Japan Part Two.
You certainly were brave to go on the Tokyo subway by yourselves, Margo! I'm glad you enjoyed your stay at a ryokan, we have stayed at many. They are all different, all lovely.
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary. PS- From now on I wish to be known as Stephanie+Clipper. PPS - Glad you bought the shirt.
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