Hi JT'rs
A week in Tokyo just flew by, first time.
Stayed at The Knot Hotel ,Shinjuku. Highly recommended , booked at a good price and was well worth it.
Quiet location across from a park, very clean and hip feel to the lounge. Bakery on-site is great. Walk to local subway in 5 mins, 15-20 to Shinjuku. Loved feeling like we are close to the action but can retreat to the quiet park for a morning coffee or evening chill. Shinjuku is amazing, loads of great stores, crowds of people , everything you think Tokyo will be.
First day walked down to Yoyogi Park via Mieji Jingu Shrine, so beautiful , massive trees and the shrine itself is stunning. Harajuku next to Yoyogi is an awesome shopping area, good mix of major stores and back street boutiques and cafes. Had some amazing food.
Second day Akihabra for my son to wander the manga stores, buy a cool t-shirt, and play rhythm games , a very Japanese sub culture of video games that are slightly insane but also kinda addictive .
Then we walked upto Ueno Park for the Tokyo National Museum. Beautiful setting with a really cool collection of art and artifacts. The woodblock prints, early buddhist/shinto art and the Kimono's where particularly memorable.
Then back down to Ameyoko Market where we wandered overwhelmed with choice before settling on a Okonomiyaki , cooked on a hotplate in-front of us, delicious.
Day three. Roppongi for the National Art Centre. Stunning modernist building, seriously the most amazing modernist building i'ver been in. The collection was local artists, hundreds of works of all kinds of styles. The quality was very high, obviously some better than others, but i was overwhelmed by the aesthetic beauty of it all by the end. Very moved by the art , photography, sculpture and funny little quirky things that seem unique to the Japanese aesthetic.
We then walked down the backstreets to the Mori art museum. This is one of the joys of Tokyo, wandering the backstreets reveals a quiet residential side to the city even in the downtown areas. The Mori had Ron Muek, a sculpture i had seen a few of in the Tate Modern, but this was on an other scale. Massive works of mind blowing detail, so much human emotion portrayed in every figure. Very impressive technical skill, well presented by the gallery.
I also should mention the people i took photos of. So many cool looks of various sub cultures on display, everyone i asked to be photographed seemed very happy to pose, often with the 'peace sign' which my son has now adopted!
Day four Shibuya ,wandered around ,hot and crowded but had a decent Ramen, thick and rich flavour. Afternoon went to Shimokitazawa , such a cool neighbourhood. Wandered the chill backstreets buying some shades for myself and jeans for my son. He absolutely loves his new jeans, really cool handmade Japanese style.
Day Five. Shinjuku – wandered the insanely busy streets fully exploring the stores. Got some really cool(and cheap!) printed graphic T shirts from Uniqluo and delish iced matcha from a fancy coffee shop opp Louis Vuitton.
Then wandered around Golden Gai, hit up a reggae bar that had a huge PA and decent tunes, but was kind of quiet unfortunately, so moved onto DJ Bar Bridge back in Shibuya. Amazing sound-system , DJ Nori spinning vinyl , a true master at it since the early 80's NYC scene, a really friendly up for it bunch of regulars from the UK and LA, small crowd but had a great time, taxi back to the hotel at 2am, phew!
Day six Koenji. Another hip neighbourhood, full of clothes shops, cafes and bars. Bought a real nice 50's vintage shirt, immaculate condition, only 60 bucks! then found a Veggie Cafe that was sublime in every way, presentation , food, vibe, Japanese hippies really do it better!
Day 7 Cat St in Shibuya wasn't much tbh, but back in Akihabra we found a gem of a cafe we wandered past on the first day and regretted not going in. So happy we got a second chance as it was probably the best meal of our trip so far. Wife and son had the japanese Risotto and i had the ginger pork and rice. So so good, delicate flavours with those nice side dishes that compliment everything just so. Excellent decor to boot!
onwards to Yoyogi park and the 50's rock and roll dancers, only about 6 or 7 of them , but they put on a good show. Took some pictures and tried to learn the dance moves, but it's harder than it looks!
Tokyo is an amazing city, the layout is unique, in that the small backstreets are inviting and reward wandering, cars are infrequent as most people bike and/or use the subway , giving it a chill zenlike vibe that doesnt drain you like London or NYC, reminds me a bit of Amsterdam in that way.
The heat is pretty killer though and it's only May, so glad we are here now as i bet summer is brutal
Kyoto tomorrow on the Bullet Train, bags left today via the delivery service, only in Japan !
by Loud_Introduction871