2. Tokyo Highlights

I'm really sad to be leaving Tokyo tomorrow! Even though I've been here for two weeks, I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface and could spend another month exploring the city. I'm definitely coming back some day. Here are some of my Tokyo (and around) highlights.

Akihabara

The "electric town" of Akihabara is basically all Japanese stereotypes mashed into one area of the city. Glowing signs line the streets advertising  multi-story arcades, sex shops and "geek stores". The geek stores are crammed with expensive figurines and Pokemon cards and the sex shops with items ranging from the funny to the disturbing. We went into some arcades and ended up stuck there for hours trying and failing at all sorts of games. When you go in you're hit with a wall of noise and it's amazing to watch Japanese people who have clearly spent way too much time practicing.

Before we left, we tried out a maid café. They were everywhere and entirely bizarre. Young waitresses dressed in French maid outfits, cutesy decorations, food in the shape of teddy bears and a perfectly choreographed, somewhat stilted karaoke dance performance. The whole thing was an unsettling mix of innocent and sexual, and while the Japanese tourists were clearly having the time of their lives, the other Western tourists were clearly mortified to be there.

Tsukiji Fish market

I went to the fish market on my first morning in Japan with a photographer from Miami who I'd met in the hostel. After our breakfast, during which he stated in truly American fashion how humble he was feeling at being there and making a new friend (he never did add me on Facebook afterwards), we went to the wholesale section of the market which is opened to visitors at 9 AM every day. It's the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world with over 65,000 employees. It was really awesome to walk through and watch how smoothly everything operated. The various fish and sea creatures in bloody bowls were fascinating and gross. My American friend stopped every five minutes to spend twenty minutes taking photos of the same thing, so I made friends with some of the shellfish vendors who enjoyed showing me how they extracted the flesh from the shell and cut off the bad bits. Tasty.

Wholesale fish and seafood market

Museums

The museums here are amazing. I've been to seven so far and they've all been spacious, modern and relatively empty with really great information signs or leaflets. I'm going to write a separate post about the art I've seen here, but one of my favourite museums was the Edo-Tokyo museum which describes life and culture in Tokyo back when it was called Edo and it's transition to the mega-city it is today. The Japanese are obsessed with the Edo period (1603-1868) and even have an Edo themepark. The museum has reconstructed full size buildings and scale-models from the period, and way too much information to take in, but it was a really good introduction to Japanese history.

Gardens

When you're in the world's largest metropolitan area with over 30 million people and the buildings to match, you definitely occasionally need a break! Thankfully there are several beautiful gardens around the city, some dating back to the Edo period. I loved the contrast between the traditional Japanese gardens and the surrounding high rise buildings. While I was a bit too early to see cherry blossoms, in one park I saw gorgeous plum trees in blossom, a heron and a woman in a kimono walking through a yellow rape seed meadow.

Hama-rikyu Gardens

Couchsurfing

I spent 3 nights couchsurfing with a great Japanese host called Hayato, because I wanted to spend some time with a local. He lived in Kodaira, a "bed town" on the outskirts of Tokyo where lots of commuters live. We spent two days together and he answered lots of my questions about Japan and the people and was super friendly and hospitable. We went to Kamakura, a town south of Tokyo, which was the seat of the Shogunate (military dictator) during the Kamakura period which ended 1333. There are loads of famous shrines and temples there as well as giant statue of Amida Buddha. I especially liked the Hase-dera temple which had great views of the ocean, a gorgeous Japanese garden and less tourists than the others.

Hase-dera Temple

The next day we hiked up Mount Takao to see great views over the Greater Tokyo Area. It's a really popular destination for Japanese tourists and I was amazed to see so many Japanese grandmas doing the trek. They were definitely more able-footed than the elegant Japanese women navigating the steep cobblestones in 6-inch heels.

Kabuki

Today I went to the kabuki theatre to see one act of a five hour performance. Kabuki is a classical art form which started in 1603 and it is undoubtedly the most bizarre thing I have ever seen in my life. I'm not sure I can describe it, but for me it felt like a mix between theatre, interpretive dance and a funny-voice competition. There were up to 27 performers on stage all dressed in incredibly intricate traditional costume and make-up, and from my view at the very back, they looked like puppets. Every movement and sound had clearly been minutely choreographed, but I had no idea what was going on. It was definitely impressive, but one hour was definitely enough.

Kabuki actor
(http://www.seejapan.co.uk/jnto_consumer/experience/traditional/traditional-cultural-experiences/where-to-see-performing-arts)

Nikko

I spent two nights in a town up in the mountains 140 km north of Tokyo. On the first day I took a bus into the mountains and went on a slightly terrifying hike by Lake Chuzenji. I only found out afterwards that the hiking paths in the area were closed due to snow. I hiked for around 5 hours and was completely alone the entire time, trying to navigate the path through snow drifts and along steep slopes. On the way back I took a shortcut along an abandoned highway also closed for the winter. The whole thing was surreal and spooky, but the gorgeous view of the lake and mountains made it worth it. After the hike I took another bus up to Yumoto Hot Springs where I had been promised a great onsen bathing experience, but when I got there it was just an empty, sulfuric ghost town. I knocked on a few doors that looked like they could be hotels, but everyone just seemed confused. I gave up and went to a nice outdoor onsen in Nikko instead.

View of Lake Chuzenji from my hike

On my second day I went to the World Heritage site in Nikko which has lots of ancient temples and shrines surrounded by woods. The main Shinto shrine Toshogu was really beautiful and atmospheric, but unfortunately overrun by tourists and parts of it were under construction. But I really enjoyed the main hall which had paintings of 100 dragons on the ceiling and was less refurbished and gaudy than some of the other buildings. 

Tokyo Skytree

Skytree is the world's tallest tower at 634m and it looks awesome. I wanted to go up it, but the three hour queue changed my mind! But I decided to mention it, because on my way there a Japanese man in the subway elevator repeatedly hit me with his rolled up newspaper, gestured at my height and said "Skytree". He followed me for about 10 minutes and kept hitting me, while pointing towards the tower. Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time in my life that a random man in the street compared me to a building.

Coming up: art in Tokyo