We began the day taking a short ride to Yanaka, a district that’s preserved its history a little more than most areas of Tokyo. First stop; Tennō-ji temple. This was to be our first visit to a temple or shrine in Japan. We apprehensively walked up to the gate, noticing there was nobody around expect a workman on the grounds. We thought the best plan was to do as the Buddhists of the 1200s will have done, and decided to Google what the etiquette was. Firstly, you don’t walk down the middle towards the temple, that is reserved for the Gods. So the Gods are middle lane hoggers? Colour me unsurprised. I bet they don’t use their indicators either. Apparently, at the ‘offering hall’, throw a coin into the offering box, bow deeply twice, clap your hands twice, bow deeply once more and pray for a few seconds. I mean – wtf? I’m not trying to get infinite lives for Mario here, just let me have a gander at your wears! There was another step in the process too that involved pour a bit of water on your hands. You know, like British men do when they go to the toilet.
We finally dared to go into the temple even though we weren’t particular sure whether we were just wandering into someone’s living room. It can’t have been as there was no TV. We had no benchmark at this stage, but this appeared to be quite a small and basic temple, but it was rather lovely and serene.
At a snail’s pace, we wandered through the large Yanaka cemetery, which was home to many famous Japanese people who had passed, not one single one that I had heard of. That’s more a reflection on me than Japan. We then headed for a little neighbourhood full of old style huts, one of which sold drinks. I reckon this is where we first used the Google translate app, which is both mind-blowingly clever, and hilariously inaccurate in equal measure. I probably should have made note of my favourite translations, but the likes of ‘innocent thighs’ and ‘nearly a cow’ were common-place.
Someone from the internet had recommended a little cafe at the top of the Yanaka Ginza, a traditional shopping street. The cafe was dainty, and we had delicious scones with clotted cream and chunks of fruit. The street itself was very much the same, with shops lining each side of the pedestrianised walk-way down the middle (this time reserved for tourists, not Gods). Yes, Julie went in every single shop, yes, she touched All Of The Things….
After a cool 500 hours, we finally emerged at the other side. We now had a bit of a trek to the gardens we wished to see, but the beauty of Tokyo is that you can just about walk anywhere and find natural beauty, beautiful architecture, and bizarre oddities at every turn.
We paid our way into Rikugien Gardens and were immediately in awe with the sight of a few trees teasing a bit of autumn. There was a beautiful river that snaked around the park, which made for great photos (oooh, no pressure on the next photo you show us, Ad!).
Hashtag NO FILTER by the way. Only because I can’t be arsed, otherwise I’d absolutely be wapping a filter on two there, no question.
By now the night was drawing in, so it was time for a bit of grub. We made our way over Koenji, where we’d be meeting some friends (more on them later). Koenji was lovely, lots of little streets with vintage shops, little street food stalls and just a general lack of gentrification. One thing we discovered at this point is that a lot of eateries tend to close around 3pm and reopen around 6pm, so we spent a fair chunk of time looking at the frankly bizarre plastic displays outside of closed restaurants
After circling a block about 3 times, we popped into a noodle bar. We looked to the waiter as we walked in, and he pointed to the vending machine we needed to order from – so that was exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No but really, it was. The machine had pictures of each meal with a little description. You then made your order, get a little ticket, and hand it to the chefs. This was my first of many – *points* “….vegetarian?” – moments. I was delighted to find the direct translation was “Bejitarian”, so as long as I spoke like Brian Badonde, I’d be absolutely fine. We both ordered fairly basic noodles, but they were delicious. There was a pool of soy sauce at the bottom of the bowl, and the chef had to tell us to mix it all up – TWICE. Alright, mate. A bit keen.
We slurped, and we slurped, and we flicked broth all over the god damn joint. We had a bit of time to kill, so had a wander around a few shops. Then it was time to meet our friend Holly.
REWWWWWWWINDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Back in 2011, I signed up for a website called February Album Writing Month (FAWM). It’s an global online community of songwriters and lyricists who take up the challenge of writing and recording 14 songs in the month. You then share your songs and people can leave comments, collaborate with you, etc etc. Along the way, you naturally come across some amazing musicians who you follow year after year, and a duo called Santa Dharma fit that bill. Over the years, Myself and Julie have chatted to one half of the duo, Holly (from California, now living in Tokyo), quite a lot on FAWM and Facebook and I was happy that we’d get to meet her and her husband/bandmate Tomo (from just outside of Tokyo).
We met Holly at the train station, with Tomo meeting us later on. Perhaps it’s a product of modern day relationships, but all this internet chatter almost felt like the ice had been broken years ago, so there was no awkward mumbly stage that I usually thrust upon the person opposite me. Holly took us to a quiet Vietnamese-run bar that we would never have found on our own. We were the only ones in there, the walls stacked high with tattered LPs. We were soon joined by Tomo and we laughed and drank wine and gin.
We moved on again to another bar, this one even more hidden away. Holly and Tomo told us that the bar had a someone different running the bar each night of the week, so you never really knew what you were going to get. It turned out that it was Mr “who the hell are these 3 westerners??” tonight. (Disclaimer, he was just curious, and he was lovely). This is where we tried sake for the first time. For those that don’t know, it’s a rice wine; it sort of tastes like a halfway house between white white and some kind of vodka-esque spirit. It was nice enough to have two or three, anyway. In here we chatted Trump, Brexit, music, and the links between shrines and the right-wing. It was more fun than it sounds! We then had a little walk around and made our way back to the train station to go home and bid our lovely friends Holly and Tomo farewell, but not before an obligatory selfie.
15 days in Japan. 