Holidays in Tokyo

[JimHow]

Anecdotes from Tokyo


By Jim Howaniec (with help from Z)

Our trip to Tokyo was scheduled essentially at the last minute. With a little help from the court clerks, I was able to clear my schedule for a week. I departed from Boston on Sunday and returned the following Sunday. I had Tokyo to myself on the first day, with Z not coming in from Taipei until the next day.

The first misconception pierced was that Japanese are standoffish. Just the opposite. When engaged, they are warm, friendly, with dignity and appreciation for their way of life. The taxi driver from Haneda airport told me that Trump was very popular in Japan. I diplomatically said that both he and Biden were too old. In the end he told me he preferred Pence.

We stayed at the Tokyo Hilton in the heart of Shinjuku City, where the staff was the best. On the first day I walked through the bustle to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, with its more than 1,000 cherry trees, where not a street sound is heard in the center of the city.

Z came in from Narita Airport further north, a more visual trip into town that captures the expanse of skyscrapers stretching miles and miles, making Manhattan look like a tiny village. Getting into and out of the two huge airports was incredibly easy, with very little traffic, largely due to the city’s impeccable rail and public transportation system.

The rest of the itinerary was a whirlwind.

A sojourn to Senso-ji, site of Japan’s oldest temple, this version was rebuilt after the original was destroyed completely in the war. Known throughout Japan, it is the temple of their compassionate god, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, who embodies the mercy of all Buddhas. We obtained our “omikuji” fortunes, mine apparently better than Z’s, so she tied hers to a nearby tree, linking it to the life force of the tree for better luck.

We went to the breathtaking Shibuya Sky observation deck with stunning panoramic views of the city. It is perched above Shibuya Crossing, believed to be the world’s busiest intersection, with as many as 3,000 pedestrians crossing every few minutes.

Teas at cafes, including the popular Cat Cafe Mocha Lounge. An adventurous foray into the bright lights and sensory overload of the Kabukichu red light district. I’m not a big strip club guy but we went into one for a beer just to say we did it, kind of an R-rated affair as the ladies keep their clothes on but a lot of onstage interaction with the local Japanese businessmen, yen notes in their mouths. Back out onto the street lit like midday, where we finished the evening in one of the dozens of tiny four-to-eight seat bars that line the narrow alley known as Golden Gai. We were fortunate, our bar was populated by native locals, we shared sake and their goodwill and friendship late into the night, truly one of the highlights of the trip.

And lots of sushi! We dined on sushi at the hotel and French/Japanese fusion at Hommage, where I ordered a 2002 Chateau Lynch Bages in honor of Bordeaux icon Jean-Michel Cazes, who passed at the age of eighty-eight the day before.

The presentation at Sushi Masachi was insane. It gave me goosebumps. Z educated me on each of the courses, and the Nigiri-zushi formation of bite-sized vinegared-rice with just the right amount of pressure for aeration. As described by Z: “Good nigiri contains just the right amount of air. As you’ve probably noticed during our lunch, the nigiri seems to sink when placed on the table in front of the guests, and then crumbles lightly in the mouth.” The skills to properly produce Nigiri can take a lifetime to master, our chef has been doing it for over twenty years. Z was kind enough to recreate the menu for me, including the bluefin tuna “trio” that literally took my breath away, the chef looked over at me with satisfaction at one point when I literally gasped out loud. See Z’s summary below.

Our last night was spent at a late dinner near our hotel at the New York Grill atop the Park Hyatt, scene of Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation. We started with steak dinners and when we told the service that we were fans of the movie they moved us into the famous lounge, the layout seemingly untouched since the filming there with the jetlagged “Bob Harris” (Bill Murray) and “Charlotte” (Scarlett Johansson) back in 2003. We splurged for a couple glasses of 2012 Dom Perignon overlooking a spectacular nighttime panorama of Tokyo and mellowed to the light jazz of the lounge band, already beginning to feel nostalgic about a once in a lifetime trip that was nearing its end. What a special treat.

Tokyo for us, in the end, is about its wonderful people. The red LOVE statue near our hotel was a daily reminder of the warmth of the people of the city. There is an obvious pride in their city and culture. A taxi driver who drove us to Sushi Masachi got out of his car to check the directory on a building to confirm he had brought us to the right location of the fifth floor restaurant. We got to do one of our favorite things when visiting a new city – walking around the neighborhoods, aimless flaneurs, people-watching, shopping, dining, lounging….

Barely a speck of litter is to be found anywhere in the city; nor graffiti, nor a single homeless person. Tokyo is the largest city in the world at 40 million residents, but it seems to run like clockwork. No traffic jams, everything on time. Office workers walking fast paced to nearby skyscrapers in white tops and black bottoms for both men and women. Whether for work or leisure, the Japanese are all impeccably and stylishly dressed.

We were hoping to take a helicopter flight to Mt. Fuji but the one morning of rain during the trip interrupted our plans. We did finally get a view of it from the top floor executive lounge at the hotel on the last day. We went into a record store, a second hand store, arcades, tiny underground restaurants, and at the airport on the way home we got a pair of Japanese hipster black frame glasses for me and sunglasses for Z, it was so fun to interact with the friendly, hip, nerdy young Japanese sales folk attending to us.

In a whirlwind, it was over. Bracing for the long flight home in the unbearable Delta cabin seating, but emotionally and spiritually inspired by this wonderful city. Memories of a lifetime from a trip to the beautiful city and people of Tokyo, Japan.
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At Sushi Masachi:
Hand-rolled sushi (temaki): Bafun-uni (Sea urchin from Hokkaido) and tuna wrapped with seaweed
vinegar jelly with caviar and shiromi (white fish)
Awabi (Albalone) with its liver sauce [from Boso, Chiba Prefecture] was slowly steamed in sake. And the essence from the steaming process is boiled down with the liver to make the sauce.
Seared fatty tuna[from Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture] with sukiyaki sauce and egg .
Hoshigarei(Starry Flounder) nigiri
Tsubugai (arthrictic neptune) nigiri [aka the one sushi you weren’t “sure about” because of its texture].
The bluefin tuna “trio”: Akami(leanest), Chutoro(mid), Ohtoro(the fattiest) [from Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture.]
Kohada (Konoshiro gizzard shad) nigiri [Kohada follows fatty tuna. The refreshing vinegared kohada cleanses the palette.]Kuruma-ebi(Kuruma prawn) nigiri [Kuruma ebi can be served raw, but it is most often boiled. The restaurant we went to insists on cooking and peeling the shrimp moments before we eat them.]
Anago(Saltwater Eel) nigiri [ As sushi, anago is never served raw, always cooked. When served, the reduced broth is brushed over the nigiri. The sauce usually has a sweet barbecue-like flavor.]

[JimHow]

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[JimHow]

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[jal]

Thank you for posting this, you nailed Tokyo! We loved the place but we were also charmed by the rest of Japan. Kyoto, Kurashiki, Okayama and countless other places. You must go back for longer than one week, it is a wonderful country with a lot of respect for ancient ways, for the environment, for example, I understand no one can build on hillsides, how delightful to walk around Kyoto and see beautiful mountains and hills without any structures.
And they are perfectionists, in everything, architecture, art, food.
Now I want to go back

[JimHow]

I thought of you and Danny while I wrote it, Jacques, I know you both had great experiences there.
It was a wonderful trip.

[DavidG]

Wonderful Jim, very happy for you. I’ve been to Japan only once, a week in Kyoto in the fall as the leaves were at glorious peak color. It was just as Jacques described it.

[AKR]

That sounds fascinating. I have been educating myself about this land by listening to Jpop and watching https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Party-Peop ... B09942V3RG

It's a strangely captivating movie, germane to Bordeaux enthusiasts.