Tue 22nd April – Tokyo to Tono

DW:

I think we spent the right amount of time in Tokyo. We got a taste for what life and culture are like and explored a few of the distinct districts and some random areas too. There was still more there to see that interested us, but we were starting to enter the period of diminishing returns. Another few days would have seen us returning to the same areas for food and entering more of a routine. There is nothing wrong with that, but holidays are finite and I am excited to see the next part of our journey.

Phase 2 of the trip has officially begun. We head North at 300kph, out of the modern megalopolis and into the quaint hinterlands filled with kappas and spirits.

CR:

My reflections on Tokyo:

• Tokyo was not a beautiful city. It is smoggy and uniform. Many buildings are the same grey as the horizon. There are pockets of pretty (the river, the gardens, etc) but I was overwhelmed by the lack of nature. It is a truly urban way of life.
• Coffee is not widely understood. Ordering a coffee can lead to many different experiences: a thick, bitter black from a pot; watery black coffee diluted with cold, unfrothed milk; western style foamed milk like a bubble bath dumped on top of drip filtered coffee; or, occasionally, ‘oceanic style’ flat white. Also, you are always asked if you want your coffee hot or cold. In Australia of course it would always be assumed your coffee is not, unless specified otherwise.
• Google reviews are fascinating, and rarely pertain to the offerings of the venue. The lack of cold water or greeting when entering automatically deducts two stars. If the staff are Chinese its maximum rating is two stars. A comfy array of chairs to sleep on adds a star.
• Plastic. Everything is plastic. I now feel like my keep cup is redundant. It makes no impact.
• Bowing matches can be funny. We ran into two groups bowing to each other at a street crossing and they seemed caught in a boot loop, unable to identify which group was more senior and therefore should receive the last bow. The groups were going in different directions and had to retreat backwards, continuing to bow, until some arbitrary amount of space between them had opened up. Only then could they turn around and continue on their different ways.
• If google translate says the menu item is chicken, do not assume this chicken is cooked. If google translate says the menu item is whale, maybe just don’t order that one. It’s probably whale.
• There are a lot of rhodo plants in bloom in April. This makes me recall Blackheath fondly, and think Costa is going to burst out of one of the bushes.
• 14 million people can be quiet.
• There’s actually a lot of Western food options, mostly French and Italian. This surprised me. Not much Thai or Indian or Vietnamese but a trattoria or a bistro on every block.
• On the topic of food, it was much harder to connect with restaurant owners regarding their food than Thailand. In Thailand, I felt the cook and any associated family members (eg. Mother preparing vegetables in the back corner) were so interested in what you thought about the food. And this happened for nearly every meal in every town. I remember eating a Thai dish in a Target equivalent shop in the South and a lady just sat down and started asking me (in Thai and the English word ‘spicy’) about the meal. She had a big plushie under her arm that she’d just bought. This is an automatic positive connection that you can make despite the language barrier. None of that is present in Tokyo. You are very much left alone as a customer. And I am finding that it is harder to interact and bond, even though the language barrier is much less than Thailand (many Japanese employees speak quite good English).
• The food has been much more unusual than I expected. I suppose that’s because in Sydney it’s all vegetable gyoza and pork ramen. Without trying, we’ve had: fugu (poisonous blowfish), raw chicken, many different types of offal skewers, sea snail, eel. We’ve also seen raw horse meat and whale on menus. These are just random places we’ve walked past and selected based on no research, so have every reason to suspect it’s all quite normal for locals.