Tokyo for the holidays part 3
Sat., Dec. 29
Today’s my birthday, and I was hoping no one would notice, because the trip and the group are more important than yet another birthday. (I won’t feel like that next year when I’m 70, though!). However, Jerr sang happy birthday when I woke up, and I have a feeling that the secret might be widespread through the group.
We dawdled around and didn’t get to their house until nearly 11, to be met with the news that we had to leave right away for lunch. Fine with us! We can eat any time. Only two train changes later, we were at Shibuya, and right in the train station is a large variety of restaurants. Rina had reserved a tatami room for us at Nana (seven in Japanese), a restaurant that served a variety of meal sets—complete meals with various elements.
Narineh got the chirashi bowl of sashimi over rice, with miso soup, a whipped soybean dish that looked like mashed potato, and other condiments, and Nazeli happily ordered that as well, as did Rina. I had yellowtail teriyaki, which was sublime, along with a seaweed and soybean salad, the excellent miso soup, and other bits. Jerr, Sevan, and Jeremy got the hot stone beef, where a hot stone is brought with slices of raw beef already on it, and you cook it to your liking. Sevan didn’t care so much for the condiments, but he ate all his beef and the salad that came with. Jeremy had ordered a side of sashimi, which was incredible—we shared pieces, and I had some more mackerel (saba) that was like butter. The lunch was delicious, no problem to eat it all before 1 pm, when we had to leave.
We took another couple of trains east toward Tokyo to Odaiba to a huge Italian-themed mall, Venus Fort, where the Mori Team Lab digital art museum is located.
The museum is an indescribable series of immersive rooms with various projections and activities. In one room, we were covered with flowers while butterflies fluttered around.
In another, flowers grew up the walls and bloomed all over the walls and ceiling, then changed to something else, then started growing again.
In another, strands of crystal lights hung in rows, lit with changing colors, sparkling all around.
Some rooms had smooth, climbable structures that could be slid down. Others had floors you bounced on.
One was floored with padded mats and filled with small and large balloon-like objects that could be lifted or batted around, all the while changing colors.
One had a kind of maze of interconnected ladder-like things you climbed through. In one, you were offered pictures of marine life to color and personalize, and they were digitized in a wall-sized visual aquarium, so you could see your own squid interact with all the others. Everyone was entranced, and it was entrancing.
After the art museum, we hustled over to a nearby boat dock to wait for our party boat. It was cold on the dock, but Rina and Toki were offered a seat in the warming cupboard, evidently hand-crafted by the dock supervisor.
Our boat was a low-slung traditional Japanese party boat, with rows of low tables centered by a hot plate.
We were seated at two adjacent tables. The crew came around to cook the four items on the menu. First came two kinds of monja-yaki. Our cook oiled the hot plate, scattering vegetables like cabbage and onions and in some cases strips of pork belly on it, then gathering it together with two turners to create a moat, then pouring in beaten egg and other ingredients. All is scraped around the hot plate with two turners.
Then you are given a little spatula with which you get a bit off the main mass, cook and scrape it to your liking, and eat it from your little plate. Next they made okonomiyake, which is similar but just cooks like an omelet on the hot plate instead of being scraped, and is then served with lots of sauce (delicious); and then yakisoba—ramen noodles cooked on the hot plate with sauce and vegetables and spices.
We ate and talked and watched fireworks explode over Tokyo Bay.
Nazeli made friends with another little girl, who was also five. They had a wonderful time and appeared to understand each other perfectly.
By the yakisoba, I was stuffed, and could barely hold another bite. Then the cook prepared a Japanese crepe. He used a large squirt bottle, like a ketchup bottle, to carefully construct an oval of the thick crepe batter on the cleaned hot plate, and then added small chunks of red bean paste down the middle as the crepe cooked. When he was done, he rolled it into a long roll and cut it into pieces for us to share. It was very tasty, and I don’t normally care for red bean paste.
At this point Rina rummaged in her bag and pulled out a silly headband with a little birthday cake and candle on top, and handed it to me to wear. I was also given a little sponge cake with a candle in it, and the whole boatload sang happy birthday.
The Japanese love silly hats, so I smiled and nodded to make the hat waggle, and that was applauded. Matt and Rina gave me a bag with a beautiful pair of hand-forged pruning shears in it, and a fun card that contained a pair of lovely earrings. She shared a box of sponge cakes among everyone, and we all enjoyed the improptu celebration.
We walked back to the train station, and had two train rides and a chilly walk back to our apartment to work off dinner enough for bedtime. Our hosts had come in and started the heat for us (probably to keep us from crashing the breaker again), so we were warm and cozy despite the plunging temps.
Sun., Dec. 30
Our last full day. Jeremy and family wanted to go to Asakusa to see the Senso-ji shrine and look around. Senso-ji is one of the oldest shrines in Tokyo, and always interesting.
It was packed to the gills, however, due to the proximity of the New Year, a much bigger holiday in Japan than Christmas. We forged our way through the crowds, past the stalls selling tourist items and sembei (rice crackers, many made fresh right there), around the enormous incense burner where you are supposed to waft the copious smoke toward your head and heart, and into the temple. It is a beautiful old structure, surrounded by memorial shrines to various people. The grounds are beautifully landscaped.
We segued into the busy surrounding streets, searching for lunch. Matt found a sushi place, and we feasted on aji, yellowtail, salmon, mackerel, and other kinds of sushi. I had a big bowl of shell miso, with many clams in shells. Everything was good.
We made our way back to the train station and stopped at Shinjuku to shop for takeout dinner in the basement of the Isetan department store, conveniently located in the train station. It was as packed as the shrine had been.
Matt steered a path and chose a variety of Japanese-style Chinese food. We found our way to the Keio line and climbed on the train for some much-needed (on my part) sitting.
Back at Kamikitazawa, Rina and Toki had passed a quiet day. Toki, who has been a good sport about being taken all around Tokyo, has developed a cough and is snotty. He had no fever, and except when hungry, was in a good mood, smiling and enjoying the company. Matt is going to give him his bath tonight and keep him in the steam for a while, and we hope he feels better in the morning.
We trudged back to our apartment through the cold wind. Tomorrow we catch the Narita express at Shinjuku by 1:30 to get to the airport by 3, so we can board our plane at 5. We’ll get home at 10 am that same day, loosing no days, but many hours. Hope to sleep a bit.
Mon., Dec. 31
Chuck came down to check us out of the apartment and urged us to return. I found later that he had given us a 5-star review on Airbnb, where evidently the landlords can review the renters as well as vice versa. (I gave them a 5 star review as well, despite the hard beds, and the dust bunnies I saw beneath them while looking for a missing sock.) We were urged to return at any time to visit our grandson and have pleasant conversation.
We trundled our luggage to Matt and Rina’s, and spent the morning enjoying the baby, and enjoying all being together. Jeremy did his baby-whispering thing of getting Toki off to sleep, a super power he developed in dealing with his own children.
We were all a little sad to haul our suitcases to the Kamikitazawa station one last time. Jeremy developed a fascination with the ubiquitous Japanese vending machines full of hot and cold drinks as well as snacks and trinkets; he’d tried every kind of coffee except one, which he quested for till the last vending machine was passed. Matt came with us as far as Shinjuku, found the ticket counter for purchasing our N’EX tickets, and pointed us in the direction of the right train. After so many times coming and going, we managed to find our way to the proper track, and stand in the proper line for our car, which is important, because after the N’EX passes Tokyo station, part of it goes off to the northeast, while the other part continues to Narita.
At the airport, we had to go through customs again, meaning standing in a long, slow-moving line to have our passports checked so the authorities could be assured we were leaving the country. Up the stairs, we found the ANA counter for check-in; passports were again examined. We checked the bags and went looking for lunch, ending up with bagels because everything else involved a wait. Then it was a long line through security, where once again passports were checked, before we found our gate. And when the plane boarded, passports were again checked. At least they were sure we had truly gone.
Once arrived in San Jose, we again stood in line for customs, and finally managed to get outside to catch our driver. The warm sunshine of my imagination was nowhere near the reality of weather pretty similar to Tokyo’s. We got home, brought in the luggage, told ourselves not to sleep until nighttime, and promptly dozed off in our chairs.
It was a wonderful trip, and we much enjoyed the people and sights of Tokyo. Sevan was very impressed with the vending machines. Nazeli loved the baby and the parks. Jeremy and Narineh enjoyed everything. And Jerr and I really enjoyed a family trip with all our favorite people around.
