Japan II: Izu Chill and Tokyo Bustle

Chester here covering the second half of our time in Japan! I am starting this entry on the plane to Singapore, our second to last country. Incredibly we have only a few short weeks left before we head home, so this will be one of my last entries. We are constantly marveling at the fact that we have been traveling for five months now and are somehow still at it. We are sad the trip is coming to an end, but we are also ready to see our loved ones and reintegrate a bit back into familiar routines. So - a bit of a bittersweet note as we finish this last month and try to savor the last steps of this very long journey.

Izu Peninsula

Southwest of Tokyo, the Izu Peninsula sticks out into the Pacific like a big green thumb. Famous for its wasabi production, beaches and history, I pushed to go here because I wanted to step off the tourist path for a beat. We were planning on a chill time between Kyoto and Tokyo and that is what we got, doubly so because rain and grey skies kept us from exploring much.

Shimoda harbor.

 

We stayed for two full days in Shimoda at the southern tip. We got most of the way there on the bullet train from Kyoto, munching down on bento boxes and sipping cans of Sapporo while the Japanese countryside whizzed by at 200 miles per hour. It really showed how much of a marvel the Japanese train system is, especially as we were then able to hop onto local trains to take us to a pretty rural area, zero cars needed. Something I wished America could do, but am not holding out hope for anytime soon.

Life is good on the bullet train.

We checked into our ryuken accommodation in Shimoda, which was a little treat to ourselves after staying in hostels elsewhere in Japan. This was a full out traditional Japanese inn with tatami mat floors, a sunken eating area, and our own private onsen on the patio. Pretty nice! We spent a good amount of time just relaxing in the room and in the onsen, enjoying the tranquility of the inn.

 

 

We did a few other things worth mentioning while we were in Shimoda. We explored the town and learned about the significant role it played in Japanese and American history. It was the first port to be open to American trade after Commodore Perry forced the Japanese to open up to outside trade in the 1850s. We also visited a large traditional onsen, one of the biggest in the area and soaked in the cypress tubs which we luckily had all to ourselves. If you haven’t stood in the nude in a Japanese outdoor bath in the rain, I recommend it!

A very informative storefront on Izu. No idea what it says.

 

Exploring in the rain on Izu.

 

Izu panorama.

One of the most memorable moments on Izu came totally by accident though. The night we arrived, a bit beat and eating later than usual, we went to one of the few open businesses which was an izakaya on the outer edges of Shimoda. It was already lively with a few patrons and we felt a little out of place as we took our seats, but we were soon getting asked all sorts of curious questions about how we ended up in Shimoda and that izakaya in particular. With the aid of Google Translate we were able to keep the conversation going and talked about all sorts of things from baseball to (inevitably) what we thought of our president. It was really fun to hang out with locals in such a loose setting and showed the value of getting off the beaten path for a bit.
 

Tokyo Bustle

Tokyo staggers you and humbles you. Over and over again I was constantly in awe of the sheer number of people who lived there (more than California in one city!) and that it all just seemed to work. With the endless number of cool things to do, we went in with the attitude that we were going to fail to do all the cool things, so we might as well explore at our own pace. For us, we ended up exploring the nightlife more than we usually do as we had more incredible luck meeting up with friends and we had a big occasion to celebrate: Nikita’s birthday. 

Welcome to Tokyo

The celebrations began when we got acquainted to Tokyo on our first night with a bar crawl that we joined after finding it online. Our host Tatsuya was a consummately cool Shibuya veteran and a great host, happy to show foreigners around his favorite bars in the legendary Shibuya neighborhood. We had a tasty dinner then checked out a few neighborhoods with different types of bars while meeting other travelers. We had a great time, and were treated to a few shots on the eve of Nikita’s birthday. 

The neon gardens of Shibuya

A welcoming bar.

On the actual night of Nikita’s birthday, we enjoyed the most special meal of the trip: an omakase dinner. It was incredible to have such an intimate dining experience and watch the chef as he deftly sliced and served us sashimi and other delicious small plates. Some of the dishes were fairly challenging for us (like an entire fried fish, head and all) but everything we had was wonderful and it was fun chatting a bit with the chef as he worked.

Chef at work.

For your consumption, head to tail.

A more traditional, immaculately made, piece of sushi.

That night and the following we were able to meet up with friends who also happened to be in Tokyo. Mostly we hung out in the admittedly touristy but still very fun Golden Gai, an ultra-dense collection of small bars in Shinjuku. I really mean dense and small - dozens of bars on the same block, some only up a set of steep stairs and fitting a small handful of people each. In one case, we saw a loft situation with people sharing drinks while sitting with maybe three inches of headroom to spare. Obviously this makes bar-hopping a breeze, so we were able to check out a few different spots. 

Crammed into a tiny spot in Golden Gai.

Friends! In Tokyo!

 

More Tokyo nightscapes.

Finally, we had one last night to close out the celebrations with a dinner cruise and nightclub visit. The dinner cruise was something I had found online and is a Tokyo tradition. Diners pack into a boat and are treated to dinner and all-you-can-drink alcohol, so we heard they can get pretty rowdy with karaoke and such. Unfortunately, maybe because it was a Tuesday night, we got no karaoke but it was still a fun experience. We capped off the evening by heading to a nightclub where a Japanese DJ was spinning some house music, boogeying until a reasonably early hour.

Skyline view from the boat.

The evening's MC on the boat.

A fun club experience.

We didn’t only see Tokyo at night though, we managed to usually get out before 11AM for some daytime exploring and shopping. Mostly this was just heading to a neighborhood that we heard was cool and seeing what was up. As we found, Tokyo is oozing cool from every crack so we had no trouble finding interesting things to do. Some neighborhoods, like Shimo Kitazawa were filled with a baffling number of vintage clothing shops and others, like Akihabara, were filled with a baffling number of stores selling manga merchandise. So quite the wide variety! 

Checking out some manga promotion on the streets of Akihabara

Endless Tokyo from atop an observation tower.

Some absolute banging ramen was had.

 

Some key purchases were made. In particular, we hunted down a new watch for Nikita for her birthday, since she was itching for something a bit more refined than her Apple Watch. Of course we also made time to snag some only-in-Japan Onitsuka Tiger sneakers, a surefire way to let people know that you’ve been to Japan and have good taste. We popped into endless shops, some with sincere interest and others just because. The shopping culture in Japan is very robust and it is clear that e-commerce is not as popular as it is at home.

Several stacked rows of swag.

Nikita got the goods.

Tokyo bustle in full force at the Shibuya Scramble.

Lest you think we are without culture and only interested in drinking and shopping, we also checked out the Modern Art Museum and the Tokyo Photographic Art museum. The former was definitely better than the latter, with lots of interesting works that were influenced by Europe but with a distinct Japanese sensibility. The photographic museum was less impressive, but had a couple interesting pieces.  

Some of my personal favorites from the Modern Art Museum.

Projections and Reflections

I'm struggling to boil down Japan into any sort of single sentiment. Everywhere is contradictions: overwhelming in the streets and subways, but tranquil in little towns, shrines and gardens. Technologically advanced in toilets and trains, but way behind on credit cards. And so on and so forth, so many little differences that make it very similar to home at times but also very, very different at others.

It was also fascinating to see how American culture is absorbed in Japan, given in the past few decades how much Japanese culture has made an impact in the U.S. It is clearly a relationship of mutual infatuation, as Americans rush to Japan for collectibles from their favorite Nintendo game, and Japanese buy up all the vintage Americana clothes they can find. Food is a constant conversation as well, with Japanese people taking American staples like pizza and refining it, and Americans putting their own spin on sushi (whether a dragon roll is a refinement of classic sushi is up for debate). 

Some excellent Japanese pizza.

I'm really glad we were able to make Japan happen. It was somewhere we both wanted to go "someday" but didn't think it would work on this trip, but we bent the trip to make it work. Lo and behold, it ended up being a highlight for both of us. The food, the people, the smoothness with which everything works were all a perfect chapter as we cruise towards the end of our time abroad.