Travelling in Tokyo - the first chapter in our Japanese adventure!

In October last year my husband and I set off on a long-overdue trip, taking in Japan, New Zealand and French Polynesia. It was very much like three holidays rolled into one and, to try to make it easy for you to pick the bits that are the most relevant, I’ve tried to break it down into sections – here are my reflections on our starting point - Tokyo. Tokyo is huge and therefore looking at it as one cohesive city is pointless – even the districts have sub-districts and if you bear in mind the central station (with a very western-looking façade) has over 200 exits, you’ll get a rough idea of the sheer scale. The other important consideration is that when physical space gets limited in cities the Japanese just build up, so one building can house shopping centres, hotels, offices and apartments and, more than likely, numerous karaoke bars! To cope with such an assault on the senses it’s a great idea to either join a group or hire a guide for the day. Our guide, Sylvia, was essential in helping us understand the lay of the land, how to use (and find – back to things hidden inside buildings again!) the subway system, explaining more about the culture and etiquette as well as showing us the sights. In one, heavily jet-lagged day, we visited the Imperial Palace grounds and gardens, the Ginza district, Ueno park and Yanaka. This tour took us through the different facets of Japan, from the way of life of the early imperial families and their samurai (much more on this in Kyoto), through to Japan’s most prestigious shopping district followed by a neighbourhood that feels quaintly untouched by tourists. Ginza is the most expensive real estate in Japan, with incredible shops including a watch store where each individual brand has a lift to just their shop or the Nissan concept store’s café where you can print your favourite car on your coffee... and yet in the midst of this you can still find traditional ‘izakaya’ or pubs if you know where to look. Just in case this was so far so normal, we then went to Tokyo's answer to Harrods, Ginza Mitsukoshi, to find some snacks for a picnic in the park. As with many department stores worldwide, there’s a deli floor and this was an absolute assault on the senses - it felt as though half of Tokyo was in there and the choice of food was bewildering. One thing that was surprisingly awesome was a sandwich with cream and fruit. Yep. In this case blueberry, so I guess it was a bit like jam but there are plenty that literally have slices of fruit in and I have eaten many since that one! We headed to Ueno Park to eat and found out this is the museum district, so pretty much all of the museums plus the zoo are all in the same place. Very handy on a rainy day. By this point I had totally flagged and the food wasn't doing it for me (with the exception of the sandwich) so after a little rest Sylvia suggested we headed to a nearby neighbourhood, Yanaka, which is very much a local suburb with some older style houses. It was just a real joy to explore as you felt properly off the tourist trail although there was no escaping something we came to discover was ubiquitous throughout Japan right now - capsule toys, like bigger versions of kinder eggs called ‘gachapon’ for the noise the machines make. They had everything from Pokemon characters to mini pot noodles to collect. We basically decided they are a little crazy. After a busy day we spent the evening on a dinner cruise (advice, don’t eat anything for a couple of days beforehand!) where we got to experience Japanese service and hospitality for the first time. We were pretty much the only foreigners on the cruise but a very kind family took pity on our general confusion about the vast array of dishes and guided us through some of the less obvious dos and don’ts so hopefully we weren’t too embarrassing! Every day is a school day here. Our next day was spent in a similar way of contrasts – we were staying near the ancient Senso-ji temple and it was quieter as it wasn’t a weekend, so we got a few photo and did our fortune (I got 'Best Fortune') before heading to the very modern Tokyo Sky Tree. We went up to the observation decks at 350 and 450 metres and pretended we could see Mount Fuji (not a chance) but the city views were incredible, so it was definitely worth it. We then took the monorail to the island of Odaiba in Tokyo Bay - the monorail was fun but there's not much going on unless you want to spend more time in malls although we saw the Unicorn Gandam (a 16 metre tall robot that changes poses) but having originally gone out thinking we might find some interesting waterside restaurants we drew a blank and headed back to the centre and Kanda. Our brief time in Tokyo was at an end already but we were heading to the Japanese Alps and the traditional Nakasendo Way, the original walk from the old capital Edo (now Tokyo) to Kyoto.