Kiso-Fukushima

We’re traveled out of the city into the Kiso mountains northwest of Tokyo, in Nagano prefecture, which once hosted the Winter Olympics. It’s a bit colder here and rainy, but nonetheless beautiful with rushing rivers and cloud-covered hilltops. According to the local tourism bureau, 

“During the Edo period (1603-1868), Kiso Fukushima was the most important post town of the Kiso Valley. From here, the prefectural magistrate governed the entire region and oversaw one of the four Nakasendo checkpoints. No traveler could pass without presenting an official border-crossing permit.” Tomorrow we will visit that border gate as well as hike a short part the Nakasendo trail that runs from Kyoto to Tokyo.

Tonight, we’re staying in a ryokan, one of the inns in Kiso Fukushima, a post town along the Nakasendo trail that has been operating here for more than 300 years. 

We settled in around 5 PM and quickly jumped into the mineral bath (Onsen) fed by local mountain waters. A great antidote to busy Tokyo.

Here we are in our traditional ryokan robes, which we wear around the inn and to meals.

Tonight we feasted on a traditional ryokan dinner: a 6-course meal that was as beautiful as it was tasty. Check this out:

Tuna and scallop sashimi

Sea bream hot pot

Rice with vegetables and soup

Ontake konjac, sesame tofu and grilled sweet fish

Stewed pork 

Grilled beef and vegetables

Plus dessert and, of course, green tea.

We’re well fueled for tomorrow’s hike. :)

Tokyo like a Native

Friday was a very special day for us here in Tokyo, as we met Keiko, our guide and host for a morning visit to Tsukiji Fish Market and a homemade sushi lunch. The fish market is a huge area of specialty seafood stalls both for fresh and prepared seafood. Joined by throngs of tourists and locals, we walked up and down the aisles with Keiko pointing out a wide variety of seafood, vegetables and other food items that we’d not seen or tasted before. Along the way, we shopped for our lunch ingredients — tuna, salmon, mackerel, yellowtail, wasabi root, tamagoyaki and more. We also stopped to taste sea urchin, served fresh from the shell, and fried burdock.

After shopping, Keiko took us on the train back to her home neighborhood. On the walk to her house, we passed the cutest school classes of 3-year-olds walking hand-in-hand in a line down the sidewalk. We also peeked in the window of a rice-seller, separating the hull and the bran from the white rice inside. Keiko explained that this fresh rice is the tastiest.

Our sushi-making lesson was so much fun! Keiko had us grating wasabi root using a special grating tool made of wood and sharkskin. We made sushi rice and then shaped it for nigiri and maki. 

When everything was ready, we all sat down for a delicious lunch and good conversation. Keiko told us that when she and her husband were younger, they and their three girls lived in Winnetka, near Chicago. She was also very impressed that we have Shohei Ohtani on the California Angels baseball team, as he’s worshipped as much (probably more?) here in Japan as he is in the US.

We said goodbye to Keiko and spent the afternoon in Ueno Park at the Cherry Blossom festival, visiting a few more old Shinto shrines and a Buddhist temple. Then is was back to the hotel just as the rain got heavy. In the evening, a walk to the izikaya alley for beer and bbq.

Next stop: Kiso Fukushima

Tokyo Day 4

I have to admit that titling these posts is a challenge as I have already lost track of the days and also am starting to think in Japanese. Ichi Ni San Shi Go. Today is Day 5, but I slept through the afternoon and evening of Day 4, so here I am, trying to catch up.

Yesterday: an immersive digital art experience at TeamLab Planets, the slogan for which is “Immerse your body, with others, become one with the world.” There we were standing in the rain, in a queue, with hundreds of people from around the planet who were eventually ushered into a warehouse-like space and directed to take off our shoes and socks. The art installation requires bare feet. Also, roll up your pants to your knees because you will walk in water. You may get dizzy. You must be physically fit because there is climbing involved. And darkness. And sound. Then light. And dancing orchids. Like this:

I don’t know what else to say. You had to be there.

And yes, I felt it: One with everyone. 

And no, there were no hallucinogens involved.

Tokyo Eats

Are you there, world? It’s me, Hannah. As promised, this is a guest post to talk about (what else?) food. Let’s rewind and examine everything we’ve eaten since we left LA. 

Here is some phenomenal sea bass I had on the plane. Delicious fish before we even entered Japanese airspace!

And here is a beautiful butter rose, also courtesy of Singapore Air.

Fast-forward 24 hours, and we’re in Japan. I saw a store in Harajuku called Strawberry Fetish, and that’s clearly what this country has. Here are some strawberry cakes from the breakfast buffet at the hotel, and some of the most perfect strawberries I’ve ever eaten from the basement food hall of the Takashimaya department store.

Speaking of Takashimaya, it was heaven on Earth. Here are some more of the amazing display cases we ogled at.

At the Shinjuku Gyoen park on our first day, where we went to picnic under the cherry trees, we stopped at a tea house for matcha. I also got this little pancake sandwich situation with matcha ice cream and red bean paste. No idea what it was called, but it was tasty and beautiful.

Night one brought our weary feet to a ramen restaurant near the hotel that was on my list. They’re well known for using yuzu (a citrus fruit) in their broth—it somehow makes a bowl of pork broth and noodles taste light. A miracle.

Last one for today—gyoza so tasty I couldn’t wait to take a photo before digging in. 

Coming soon: fish.

Tokyo - Day 3

We put in another 8-plus miles on foot today and many more on the subway in this city that is really multiple cities combined. Everywhere we went was fun, beautiful, oishhi (delicious) or all three. The morning began at the breakfast buffet, after which we headed out for a walk to Harajuku for shopping and sightseeing with a quick stop at a tea shop for a matcha.

The Togo Shinto shrine is very small, but offers a peaceful respite in the middle of the city. Notice the high rise to the left of the blossoming cherry tree.

These are prayers written by visitors. We offered up our own prayers for our friends and family back home.

Do you recognize this guy? He looks like Brad Pitt, but it’s really Benjie as latte art. George, the latte artist, created this portrait at Reissue Coffee Shop based on an old photo on my phone.  Below is Hannah’s hot chocolate with a 3-D anime cat made of milk foam and chocolate sauce.

Harajuku is a super fun part of the city with tons of shopping, toy stores, street food and people — lots of people everywhere! We crammed ourselves into tiny stores and tiny gyoza bars, and spent our yen to our heart’s delight.

Of course, no visit to Tokyo would be complete without visiting Shibuya Crossing, which was actually not very crowded today. It’s also the location of the statue of the famous Akita Hachiko, who waited outside Shibuya Station for his master every day for nine years after his master died. I admire his loyalty.

Today’s truism: I’d be lost in Tokyo without Hannah and her navigation skills, both on Google maps and based on experience. She was very proud to have navigated us on and off trains in the busiest train station in the world.

Our next big cherry tree immersion came along the Meguro River, where the trees were in full bloom. Colorful lanterns lined the riverside walk.

Finally, we headed to Ginza for a bit more shopping and sushi delivered to customers on a conveyer belt. You watch it ride by, and just take what you want.

Our feet are tired, but our hearts (and our stomachs) are full.

Day 2 - Cherry Blossoms

Of course, one of the primary reasons Hannah and I came to Japan in springtime was to see the cherry blossoms, and they did not disappoint. We spent several hours today in the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. Today is the Spring Equinox — a national holiday — so families off work and school filled the garden, picnicking under the trees and enjoying the coming of warmer weather. Toddlers were running around, chasing bubbles. Girls were dressed in kimonos and fancy Harujuku doll outfits. Couples walked hand-in-hand. And we were there,too, with our own little picnic (see later post on our food adventures today), among the gorgeous blossoms in various shades of pink and white.

All I can add is that I feel incredibly blessed to be here to witness this natural beauty among the friendly, polite and warm people of Tokyo. I feel so, so happy today.

Day 2 - Meiji Jingu Shrine

This day has been a dream-come-true and it’s only mid-afternoon. I’ll try to give you a flavor of the beauty of Tokyo in several short posts.

Having woken early because of the time change, we started our day shortly after 7 AM at a GIGANTIC breakfast buffet at the hotel. So many kinds of eggs, pastries, fruit, salads, porridge, seafood, seaweed, rice, I literally can’t even name everything. Certainly couldn’t even try it all… but felt like eating like royalty.

Got outside early to mixed sun and clouds and, guided by Hannah and her cell phone, walked through the Shinjuku and Yoyogi neighborhoods to the Meiji Jingu Shrine, a Shinto shrine built to honor the late Emporer Meiji and the Empress Shoken. We entered through a forest of 100,000 trees donated and planed by volunteers in their honor in 1920.

Once inside the main shrine area, we were so fortunate to see a bride and groom and their wedding party.

Then, a procession of Shinto priests — the most senior in black, the novices in turquoise and white, as they bowed in prayer and then walked in silence through the shrine.

We pray that people

Be just unassuming

Like the bamboo

Which grows without pretension

Or unsightly gnarls.

— Empress Shoken

LAX to Narita on zero sleep - Day 1

It’s 11 PM Monday here in Tokyo, and I’m pretty sure I should get some sleep, but it’s been such an exciting I-have-no-idea how many hours that all I can do is try to make sense of it all, which honestly I can’t yet. Anyway, here are some pix from Day 1.

Baggage check at LAX. 

We enjoyed our wait in the Singapore Airlines lounge, where we toasted to Japan 2023!

Here I am in my airplane bed. No sleep. A movie. Several hours of TV. Two podcasts. Yoga Nidra. Two meals. Snacks. Stretching. Conversation. Photos. Lots of goofing around. (Pa, the seats were 1-2-1… tons of space per person, as you can see.)

After going through vaccination check and customs, we met this very nice lady from the travel agency, who helped us get situated and into a very fancy car for the 80-minute ride from Narita Airport to Tokyo.

Once we checked into our hotel, we walked a few blocks to pick up our Wi-Fi, then stopped into a bar for a drink, some food and a listen to this very good jazz singer and pianist. With an international vibe and people of all ethnicities speaking many languages, it felt like we could have been in any major international city. We’ve been practicing our Japanese, but everyone speaks English.

Finally, our first glimpse of the famous cherry trees. Hoping to see lots more tomorrow. Konbanwa.