After an incredible few days meeting Young’s family in Seoul and eating all of the Korean food, we were ready to delve deeper into Asian culture. I’m not exactly sure how we landed on Tokyo as our add on portion of the Asia trip, as I know the idea of Bali had been thrown out there, but I’m guessing I led the charge considering I have a strong affection for Japanese culture and food. We took a quick flight from Seoul and arrived into Tokyo in the late afternoon, checking into the Hotel Okura, which is easily one of the coolest hotels I’ve ever been to. The Hotel Okura was originally constructed in 1962 to accommodate travelers heading to Tokyo for the 1964 Olympics. The result was a midcentury-modern masterpiece with 1960s lighting and minimalist furniture. Unfortunately, the main wing of the building was demolished and rebuilt in 2015 for the upcoming (2020) 2021 Olympics, but after a big stink was made by travelers who appreciated the original decor, the designers recreated the famous features in the new design.
Thinking that Ken and Maureen wouldn’t want to go far after our flight, I found a nice looking Japanese restaurant that had a variety of appetizers, sushi and omakase next to our hotel. That restaurant turned out to be Nobu, the high-end chain infamously owned by Robert DeNiro. I didn’t realize how expensive it would be and apologized profusely to Kevin’s parents who were probably not expecting such a lavish dinner. After eating a very forgettable (sorry, DeNiro) meal, we took a cab to a nearby piano bar that we had saved that also made noteworthy Neapolitan pizzas. How do you know a meal at Nobu isn’t great? You go to the next bar and order a pizza. We called it an early night as we were all tired from our trip and had a big day of sightseeing ahead of us.
Feeling that we had been driven by Young’s family, very graciously I might add, a lot in Korea, we decided to walk as much as we could on our first full day in Tokyo. Our first destination: the Tsukiji Fish Market, the popular market where each morning they have fish auctions, the catch of the day going to whomever is willing to pay the right price. Sushi masters will line up as early as 6 am in order to get the best fish for their restaurants and apparently watching one of these auctions is advanced level tourism. But we were on vacation and had no intention of getting up that early, so we left our hotel shortly after breakfast, hoping the crowds had died down a bit. On the way we walked through a beautiful park where many locals sat with their easels, leisurely painting the colorful spring flowers. I remember Maureen commenting that if we found any green space in this vast urban jungle, we should try to soak it up.
The fish market did not disappoint and if you are taking a trip to Tokyo, I would definitely include it on your agenda. We slowly wandered through the market, observing Japanese culture at its best as vendors yelled to tourists, eager to sell the day’s catch, while simultaneously cooking up delicious yakitori. We ate some of said meat-on-a-stick before heading over to the nearby Ginza neighborhood, where we checked out the latest technological strides in electronics at the Sony Storeroom. Oddly, this was on everyone’s list of fun things to do in Tokyo, yet I didn’t really find it that fascinating, just several floors of LED TVs and the latest tablets. If you’ve seen one LED TV, you’ve seen them all in my opinion.
Finding wifi at Sony, we researched the closest Irish pub, as we wanted something familiar and were ready for a drink. Somehow after that we stumbled into the Akihabara neighborhood, appropriately nicknamed the “Electric City” for the plethora of flashing neon lights affixed to the highrise buildings. The neighborhood is also home to many sex shops, which we all got a kick out of as we walked by. I feel a lot of our choices for meals and activities had a certain element of novelty and kitsch about them, but seeing as we were in Tokyo, I figured it was expected and just came with the territory. That being said, for dinner that night we went to Gonpachi, a famous izakaya that happens to be the inspiration for the bloody restaurant scene in Kill Bill 1. As a huge fan of the movie, I was beyond excited to check it out. It’s hard to not picture Uma Thurman sword fighting when you see the square, wood interior and upper balcony. We all reveled in Tarantino’s inspiration as we shared wine and small plates.
After dinner, Ken and Maureen called it a night while we decided to take a long walk back to our hotel through Roppongi, an area known for its nightlife. We consulted my trusty map that integrated with Google Maps and was pretty innovative back in 2014. Looking back at it now, I’m extremely impressed with myself for how much research I had done before this trip – I had saved, with notes, about 100 restaurants, bars and cultural landmarks for our 5 day trip. Me now, with a toddler taking up most of my time and attention, would kill for some of that time. The unfortunate thing was that most of the bars that I had saved on the way home were full and couldn’t accommodate us. We saw a sign for a piano bar on the 4th floor of a building (everything in Tokyo is up) and decided to check it out. They clearly did not get tourists often, and barely spoke English, but were still as hospitable as can be. While drinking our cocktails, we attempted to talk to the bartender, who asked us to sign a map in the place we were from in the world. As we penciled our names over Chicago, I commented on their ice machine, a Hoshizaki, which was the same company my father worked for. The bartender replied with, “I work there too! I do sales for Hoshizaki during the day.” What a small world it is. As we were heading to the elevator, the bartender and owner surprised us with a present, aka a few things they had found in the back, including a Japanese kite. We both did the traditional bow and when Kevin accepted the gifts with the overly formal “domo arigato gozaimasu”, their heads nearly exploded and we all rejoiced in our collective politeness.
After a slow start the next morning and a quick lunch near our hotel, we headed to the harbor where we had scheduled a ferry boat tour that would take us down the Sumida River. The tour guide pointed out various architectural highlights on the boat before dropping us off at Asakusa, a district in Old Tokyo where we would visit Sensoji, a famous Buddhist temple, and Nakamise, a notable shopping street with numerous vendors selling everything from painted face masks to swords to ice cream “burgers.”
For dinner that evening, I had made reservations at Ninja Akasaka, which yes, we knew would be a novelty, but our thinking was “When in Tokyo.” Plus, we heard that this was a tourist restaurant that actually had good food. Our table was conveniently located in its own private room and on the floor, giving us a first hand view as the ninja waiters stealthily snuck in, performing their craft while also delivering our cocktails and appetizers. Again, it was kitschy, but it was fun, and from what I remember the food showcased a wide variety of Japanese cuisine, some of which was flaming, as the photos show. It was early to bed for all of us that evening – Ken and Maureen were leaving us to head home the next morning, and we would push on with the second part of our Tokyo adventure.
Recommendations:
- The Okura Hotel Tokyo. 2 Chome-10-4 Toranomon, Minato City, Tokyo 105-0001, Japan. https://theokuratokyo.jp/en/
- Akihabara. ‘Electric City’, Tokyo, Japan.
- Sensoji Temple and Nakamise Shopping Street. 2 Chome-3-1 Asakusa, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0032, Japan.
- Ninja Akasaka. Japan, 〒100-0014 Tokyo, Chiyoda City, Nagatachō, 2 Chome−14−3 赤坂東急プラザ 1階. https://ninjaakasaka.com/en/.
