Day 4 in Tokyo

We’re flying blind here friends, because, for some reason, Blogger has changed the settings on my dashboard for the blog and all the commands are in Japanese.  So, we’ll persevere and hope that all will be well when this stuff is posted.  Unfortunately I can’t caption the photos until I can read the edit settings. 

Tokyo – an amazing city – a mix of 21^st century and 17^th century, when the Edo period was in full swing with the Emperor Meiji who ruled the area.  This is a city of 12 million people which swells to 15 million on weekdays with commuters working in the city.  We really didn’t experience the full impact until trying to access the subway at 9.30 yesterday morning when the “pushers” were at work helping to cram the last few poor souls into the doors.  Standing room only has never been quite as meaningful – that’s not a gun in your pocket, is it?

We have covered a huge amount of territory, mostly in and around the central city where everybody is polite and pleasant and respectful.  The people are all well dressed and well-mannered, the streets are spotless and nobody drops rubbish.  Even on the streets there are designated smoking areas, no talking on mobile phones on the train, although they are constantly texting and we haven’t heard one angry voice. 

We’ve visited shrines, markets, parks and shopping areas and are constantly greeted with a welcome.  The amount of green space has been a revelation and parks which were hunting grounds for the shoguns and Emperors are still reserved for the people and are quite spectacular and beautifully maintained.  There are many small shrines dotted throughout the city and each has its own grounds, with lovely lawns, trees and ornamental lakes.

The train system is amazing.  I guess it has to be to move so many people each day, but there are a dozen or so train lines, mostly underground, and all the trains and stations are spotless, although crowded.  It is amazingly efficient and many of the underground stations have their own food mall where people can buy take-away or they can eat in lovely restaurants.  Once we got a handle on the system, we were able to move around the city quite easily – much quicker than trying to get around above ground.  There are often 2 or more stations only 100 metres apart, but at different levels and on different rail lines, so it takes a bit of working out. 

Food!!!!!!!

We have been blown away by the variety and quality of the food we’ve encountered.  This morning (Thursday), we caught an early train and went to the wholesale market, where every day, there is an auction of the fresh fish caught yesterday.  The auction starts at 5.30am and is for dealers only (plus a few lucky observers) although we weren’t there that early.  We had a recommendation from a restaurateur from last night’s dinner, to go to a sushi place for breakfast and it was incredible – straight out of the market onto our (banana leaf) plate – amazing.  And the rest of the market was incredible – salmon and tuna, flounder and deep sea fish, trevally and squid, all fresh each day.  On the other side of the market is the fruit and vegetable area, many of these coming straight from the boats from the US and other areas.

Last night we ate at a tiny restaurant just a hundred metres or so from the hotel, which we’d read about on Trip Advisor and it was great – the food was so-so, but the owner and other patrons gave us a night to remember with their inclusiveness and warmth.  The night before we ate at another tiny local restaurant where the chef and his wife ran the place and they have a son who is currently in Melbourne on a cultural exchange for 2 months – he’s actually Junior Surfing Champion of Japan.  So again we were made extremely welcome and the food was fantastic.  He deep-fried in panco crumbs, the most amazing pork loin chops, succulent and delicious, sliced with shredded cabbage and rice.  An amazing meal. 

Food prices are fairly equivalent to home, but we have managed to find “set menu” lunches, generally for $8 - $10 plus a $4 beer, so it’s quite economical, but delicious.  We’ve tried many different types of food from yakitori to udon noodles, to tempura and sushi and sashimi.  Yesterday’s breakfast consisted of udon noodles with a raw egg on top, a serve of salad and a green tea.  Very Healthy!  Well back to work – just finished our pre-dinner drinks and we’re off to find another tiny local restaurant where we might finish up with anything!  Each little place specialises in only one thing – be it chicken, fish, pork, yakitori or whatever and given that we can’t read the signs before we go in, we’re prepared for anything.

Off to Nikko tomorrow - looking forward to that.  Nikko is a beautiful town about 100km north of Tokyo and the site of one of the most amazing shrines I've ever seen, although my recollection is some 30 years old.