In which Layla and Roz meet Tokyo

By Layla

Gosh: Tokyo. If this were just any holiday, we’d have been thrilled to see Tokyo, but when you’re about to live somewhere for several years, there is a whole new level of thrill: anticipation, trepidation, mild terror… And of course it was raining.

We dashed through the downpour to a waiting car that drove us directly to the apartment we’ll be moving into next week til the end of August so we could make various key decisions about the furniture. In a daze, we ambled from room to room of our empty new home, finding life quite remarkable and the specifics of which chest of drawers to keep inappropriately prosaic. Afterwards we were whisked to Roz’s place of work for various welcome meetings, and installed in our temporary apartment (til the other one is ready). And then the rain went off and we walked around the Imperial Palace moat to Ginza and Annam, apparently the best Indian restaurant in Tokyo. We gorged on paneer and toasted our new life… but first, three days of vehemently being on holiday.

Up bright and early thanks to inadequate curtains, we were ready for action! We invested in monthly underground train passes and were extremely smug about this (til later that day when we learned that not all underground lines belong to the same company…) And then off we zoomed. First stop: Shibuya!

Shibuya is a central Tokyo neighbourhood that’s home to the famous busy street crossing you always see in films. Viewing it from above in the Shibuya Starbucks is a quintessential tourist experience and we duly grabbed it. Afterwards, we pottered around Shibuya, hunting for a Time Out Tokyo magazine, and buying Roz a cute school satchel at the ridiculously beautiful stationery department of Parco, a big department store. Soon we were in Yoyogi Park, a lovely public park filled with cherry blossoms, lawns, ponds, and people having picnics. After randomly popping into NHK News (the equivalent of the BBC) to see a little photography exhibition, we walked around the park, then popped out at Harajuku, an area famous for a shrine plus lots of young people hanging out wearing ridiculous costumes. Alas the young people were probably all in school when we visited but we walked down the main street where they buy lots of their clothes, which was fun, and ended up in Omotesando. This is a posh area with fancy shops and boutiques, and charming trendy cafes. And home to something I feared in my heart I would be deprived of for the next few years: avocado toast! It was very, very good. As were the baked-on-the-spot madelines with which we washed it down. We were very proud of our morning’s accomplishments!

We spent the afternoon walking to and then exploring Shinjuku Gyoen Park. This is a special landscaped Japanese Garden and of course we have already grown to love them. Just as well, since Tokyo has an abundance. However, Shinjuku Gyoen is one of the most famous, so we braced ourselves for the admission fee. Oh, 70p. Unexpected. We were entirely enchanted by this really beautiful park (though sadly their carp didn’t jump as they did in Hiroshima), and particularly as the cherry blossoms were still out, bathing the whole place in a glorious pink carpet. We kept trying to leave but then telling each other ‘oh, but it’s so lovely… let’s explore just one more corner!’

We went home for a quick rest, then headed out again, this time to an area we’d never heard of: Kichioji. In fact it turned out to be a small trek via overground rail, pleasingly enabling us to use our rail passes on their final day. Our mission: to see London’s National Theatre production of The Audience, via the NT Live film platform which turned out to be on that night at the Kichioji Odeon. Kichioji turned out to be quite a cool area, and we had a quick Japanese curry dinner at the trendy SoupStock before settling down with our £1 popcorn to watch the play. Which was brilliant. As we journeyed home, we mused that Tokyo was much prettier, quieter and cheaper than we’d anticipated… and we were already getting ready to fall in love with it.

After the grand success of our first day in Tokyo, I was intimidated by the task of planning Day 2. Especially as I’d weirdly decided to plan it all around a random cheese shop Roz had once read about, which was located in an obscure district. Off we went, but it couldn’t have been that obscure in the end, because first stop: Blue Bottle coffee. We first visited Blue Bottle in San Francisco and have happy memories of it, especially its impossibly pretentious hipster vibe. Which was entirely replicated at their Tokyo coffee roastery in Kiyosumi. We thus had a lovely sunny start to the morning with coffee and green-tea-and-lemon cake in their café before proceeding to nearby Kiyosumi Garden (and splashing out 60p for the privilege of admission). Another remarkably beautiful, charming, serene landscaped garden, another delightful lake around which to stroll… Afterwards we found ourselves walking along canals and suddenly a big, beautiful, sparkling river spanned by umpteen bridges and traversed by numerous pleasure boats. To be honest, we had not seen this coming! Hadn’t really considered that Tokyo had a big river running through it. Much less that it would have a long, beautifully landscaped pedestrian walkway! What a treat. In fact it wasn’t til we were having lunch overlooking the river at the amusingly hip Mile Post Café that I realised I’d entirely forgotten to go to the cheese shop upon which the whole expedition had been based!

After lunch, and coffee at another ridiculously cool café, we took to the water. I’d booked a kayak tour, and didn’t know what to expect. What we received was paddling down serene, beautiful canals, going past quiet neighbourhoods, waving to locals, munching on Japanese snacks, and having a charming, relaxing time… punctuated by occasional peril and terror as we battled huge (definitely huge, I say!) waves, trying to cross the aforementioned river. What a fun trip.

We went home to dry off/glam up, for a particularly exciting expedition: our first proper visit to Daikanyama, the neighbourhood we’ll be living in for the next several months. People have described it as a cross between Covent Garden and Brooklyn. It’s certainly unlike much of the rest of Tokyo. We approached from Shibuya, climbing up and over a giant motorway, up a big hill (the yama of Daikanyama means mountain…) and finally, there we were! It was dark, we probably weren’t on the main arteries, but we wound our way round little alleys peppered with boutiques and cafes and all things charming til we reached our specific destination for that night: the T Site. This area is named after its flagship bookshop, Tsutaya Books. In addition to the huge bookshop itself (which includes a café and a bar), the very beautiful T Site has several other cool shops, the trendiest dog park you’ll ever see, and Ivy Place, a fancy Italian restaurant, and our destination for the evening. We toasted our new life and ate delicious food and it was all fabulous.

The final day of our holiday is always a risky time for back-to-reality angst, but this was certainly the weirdest-feeling final day we’ve ever had… after all, tomorrow we’ll still be in the same apartment! We started the day by hopping on free bikes and cycling to our local French patisserie where we loaded up with croissants which we ate moments later in a pretty park overlooking the Imperial moat. Duly fuelled, we set off on a cycle round the 5km Imperial moat route that we walked on our first night. Halfway through, we were intrigued to see people apparently entering the gates. We followed them and found it was yet another gloriously landscaped Japanese garden: the Imperial Garden, in fact! We looked at each other: hmmm we wanted to take a look but this time it would surely be expensive? We went to the admission desk and were furnished with tickets. How much this time? Free! Tokyo is ridiculous. We had a lovely stroll round (punctuated only by fear our bicycles would be removed while we were gone as we parked them somewhere silly), and then, laughing at what fun things are within strolling distance of our from-August house, continued our cycle around the moat. And just when we thought things were brilliant enough, we cycled down a cherry blossom-coated romantic pathway and found ourselves at a boathouse. Five minutes later we were in a rowing boat, rowing around part of the moat as the cherry blossoms fell like snow around us and dotted the surface of the water in pink. Eating a post-rowing ice cream (they are big on Mr Whippy-style ice cream cones here!), we mused upon the excellence of the day so far.

After dropping off our bikes, we headed to Akihabara, an area famous for buying electronic goods, and nerdy men hanging out in maid cafes… but there were two cool cafes I wanted to visit. The first, a hammocks hanging in an indoor-but-looks-like-outdoor hipster haven in an arty market under the railway arches, was full, so we dined in the sort of place that in other cities would be an exciting go-to spot like Union Market in Washington… but I’m starting to see that Tokyo has so many cool venues that this is probably one of a million… at any rate we had a 30-vegetable salad for lunch – the healthiest thing we’ve probably eaten in Japan so far! Afterwards I found the other café, in a similarly hip locale, and had dessert in a glass box type café between two train lines, while trains zipped past.

We then walked to Ueno Park, the first think in Tokyo I’ve not unqualifiedly adored. It was busy and chaotic with a disappointing tarmac-to-grass ratio… but it did have an extremely popular swan pedal boat pond. We fought our way through the crowds but by the time we got to the station we were a bit rumpled and weary. We staggered out at our final stop: Asakusa. This is old Tokyo, and home to the famous Senso-ji temple (some guidebooks say the most famous sight in Tokyo). We refuelled with tea and scones and a restorative read of our books, then went for a walk to the temple and along the river. All very nice, but a bit busy and tiring…

We ditched our evening cinema plans for fear of falling asleep during the film, and found our local supermarket instead. Roz cooked a delicious meal and we are about to watch a film at home, and celebrate what has been an outstandingly fun and exciting holiday, and an amazing introduction to life in this country. This is our final Japan holiday blog – tomorrow real life begins!

Books read on this holiday

Layla – The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Becky Chambers), Stone Mattress (Margaret Atwood), The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy – all 5 books! (Douglas Adams), At the Edge of the Orchard (Tracy Chevalier), The Family from One End Street (Eva Garnett) and in the middle of Arcadia (Iain Pears).

Roz – At the Edge of the Orchard (Tracy Chevalier), The Little Old Lady who Broke All the Rules (Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg), The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Becky Chalmers), The Boy Who Could See Death (Sally Vickers), Armadale (Wilkie Collins), No Name (Wilkie Collins), Arcadia (Iain Pears), The Hunger Games trilogy (Suzanne Collins), Reader I Married Him (Tracy Chevalier), and in the middle of Curtain Call (Anthony Quinn).