Tokyo. Japan.
So, in order for me to avoid rambling and being concise, I have broken up my Japan trip from last month. Wait. It was two months ago I think. March. Hells I can’t remember. Anyways – I have broken up the adventure into a a few blog posts based on the cities I explored. The first will obviously be – Tokyo. One of the greatest cities I’ve been to.
So, as you may recall from the blog post before I went over, this was the first family holiday of any description my family had put together since I was about 12 years old. So…about fourteen years.
Father and Mother in a Yakitori restaurant. Omotesando, Tokyo
I was meeting my folks in Tokyo Airport and staying at a place we hooked up on Air BnB (whaddup Linh!). It was a really well located in Omotesando, a stones throw away from Harajuku, Shinjuku and Shibuya. All places you most likely would’ve heard of regardless of your familiarity with Tokyo I presume. I don’t really know what to say about Tokyo apart from general statements based on what I felt/thought whilst there.
Mother and me in Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo
Listen, I haven’t been to NYC, but I presume that is the only city that can really top Tokyo for me. I’m talking from an exploration point of view basically. I was concerned before I went over that six days might be pushing it for Tokyo. As in – I might get bored and run out things to do. How wrong I was. There were cute shops everywhere. I’ve never seen anywhere where aesthetics are so highly regarded. Not just from a store or restaurant design point of view, but also from a personal appearance perspective. Now I don’t want to harp on too much about clothing and whatnot, but really – it was something else there. If you haven’t been there and appreciate that sort of shit like I do, get over there. It was such a god damn charming place.
Amazingly cute cocktail bar
That is even before I mention the convenience of the subway system, the friendliness of the people, the cleanliness of the city, and the food. My god. The food. This is after all the city with the most accumulated Michelin-stars in the world. To give you an idea of how epic they are, at last count – Tokyo had 331 stars in total, with the next highest city being Kyoto, with 136 (Paris and NYC have 85 each for those interested btw). Now, obviously there is much more to food than just Michelin-stars, but I must say, from my completely limited experience, this dominance in the high-end eating sector must filter down to the smaller restaurants.
Parents digging into some Rameny goodness
Take me back. Please. Take me back to Tokyo.
To small Ramen bars, to moderately priced Sushi bars, to little Izakyas. All were so well thought out, so well serviced, and food was all amazing. OK, I will stop harping on it about this all. But if you haven’t been there, get-your-ass-on-a-plane!
p.s. what I’ve said in this post probably applies to the whole country. Possibly more so for Osaka which was some sort of eating Mecca. But we will get there later.
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