Image credits: JNTO/JTA/Yasafumi Nishi/Y.Shimizu
Joanna Booth goes off the beaten track in Tokyo
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“To start a trip is no good. The lost article will not be found. The person you wait for doesn’t come. Although your request seem to be granted, by enormous barrier your goal is far away like the earth to the sky.”
It wasn’t the most auspicious start. I’d shaken the box of 100 bamboo sticks until one fell out and opened the corresponding draw – number 77, in case you want to avoid it – to find a piece of paper that outlined my fate. Which was very clearly labelled: Bad Fortune. Luckily, the spirits at Sensoji Temple, Tokyo, were having an off-day. It turned out to be an excellent place to start a trip. In your face, destiny.
In fact, having a great time in Tokyo isn’t a matter of luck – it’s almost guaranteed. Tokyo offers great sights and people-watching, plus world-class dining, locals who genuinely want you to enjoy their city, and a host of wonderful cultural differences that make even the most mundane activity an utter joy. (Seriously. Playing with the electronic toilet and browsing in a 7-Eleven were highlights comparable to wandering the Imperial Gardens in an atmospheric mist.)
A spot of good fortune would come in handy when it comes to knowing where to go – and how to get there. Tokyo is huge. And navigating it is, well, confusing, to say the least. Few streets have names, and it all comes down to numbers of areas, blocks and buildings. Locating the beaten track in the first place, let alone knowing when to get off it, is tricky. My best advice? Get clients a guide, or prepare them for getting lost.
BEHIND THE SCENES
It was while we were speeding through the centre of Tsukiji fish market on the back of an electric delivery cart that I realised how valuable a good guide can be.
Every tourist in Tokyo comes to Tsukiji. It’s the largest wholesale fish market in the world, a labyrinth of stalls and storage, fillets the size of pallets, knives the size of samurai swords, eels by the yard, roe by the kilo, boxes of eyes and buckets of tentacles.
Not every tourist is given a behind-the-scenes tour by an employee, whisked into areas that aren’t open to the public, and zoomed around the whole site by electric buggy – four foreigners balanced on the back instead of a whole tuna.
This was all down to Tyler, our guide from Inside Japan Tours. He’d already taken us for the best sushi I’ve ever tasted at Yamazaki, a tiny, family-run spot in the inner market. Sitting at the bar we’d had ‘omakase’ – the chef’s choice – which included amberjack tuna, flounder, mackerel, sea urchin, river eel and even a raw tiger prawn, the head of which Masuda San then chargrilled for us.
Instead of queueing with hordes of tourists at 4am, hoping to get into the famous tuna auction (only 120 places are available per day so most are disappointed), Tyler suggested the more civilised option of a post-sushi breakfast visit at 9am, and after chatting to a buggy driver he knew, wangled us an off-the-cuff secret tour.
Then it was time for tea – but not as we know it. The Japanese tea ceremony is infamous and intricate, but lengthy. For a less formal experience we headed to the Hama Rikyu gardens. Once a shogun’s private duck hunting ground, it’s now an urban oasis where tranquil lakes and graceful pines are backed by gleaming glass skyscrapers. In the middle, a tiny wooden teahouse serves green matcha tea, with handy English instructions on etiquette.
Kneeling on the tatami mats, we turned our bowls anticlockwise twice before sipping, and drank in the peace and quiet, and the tea.
GO LOCAL
From tea to teens; our next stop was Shimokitazawa, Tokyo’s Shoreditch, a trendy area popular with locals but off the tourist trail.
Though only one metro stop from Shibuya – famous for the insanely busy crossing outside the station (watch from the Starbucks that overlooks it for a bird’s-eye view of the flood of pedestrians) – Shimokitazawa feels a world away.
Instead of skyscraper-lined boulevards we found narrow streets, two-storey homes and rows of deeply cool boutiques that combine the services of shop, coffee-house and bar.
We fully embraced going native and had a go at ‘print club’. It’s very popular in Tokyo, but mainly with 14-year-old Japanese girls, so the other patrons looked rather surprised to see four foreigners the wrong side of 30 squeezing into the photo booth.
Once we’d taken our picture, the machine got to work, smoothing skin and enlarging eyes, until we resembled rather manic geriatric manga cartoons.
For nightlife, you can socialise like the Japanese even if you don’t want to do karaoke. For a relaxed night out, most locals head to an izakaya. These pub/restaurant hybrids range from chichi establishments full of office workers to spit-and-sawdust spots packed with students. We tried both, and the basic concept of drinking and eating shared plates is fun at both ends of the scale.
In Nana, an upmarket izakaya in Marunouchi, we sipped sake and tried delicate dishes, from sashimi and tofu to soya milk skin yuba.
In a basic izakaya down a back street in Shibuya, we drank beer and ate yakitori chicken – the perfect pre-karaoke warm up. Singing in public? That’s when my fortunes really took a turn for the worse.
Book it: Inside Japan Tours offers six nights at Palace Hotel Tokyo, private airport transfers, eight hours of private guiding, a dinner and drinks evening with a tour leader and a Tokyo transport card, from £1,625. Flights can be added.
insidejapantours.com
0117 370 9751
Tried and tested: Palace Hotel Tokyo
The name is apt. Not only is the hotel located right next to the Imperial Palace, it’s pretty palatial in its own right.
More than half of the 278 rooms have balconies – a rarity in Tokyo, and doubly felicitous when you see the view. If guests can tear themselves away from their terraces – and with a vista of the huge Imperial Gardens and the skyline of Downtown Tokyo this is truly a challenge – they’ll find the only Evian spa in Japan, all white walls and blonde wood, pampering treatments that leave you feeling zen, and a pool with that same view.
Entirely rebuilt in 2012, the hotel’s exterior is unremarkable but the inside stunning. All the public areas have a distinct feel, from the gentleman’s club-like Royal Bar to antique wood and silk in Chinese restaurant Amber Palace.
The restaurants are worth a visit even if clients are staying elsewhere – the food is exceptional. Wadakura offers tempura, teppanyaki and sushi from a Michelin-starred master, but if they’ve had their fill of Japanese, Crown serves high-end French cuisine. Grand Kitchen is less formal and, with a terrace by the Imperial moat, means you really can breakfast like a king.
The city has plenty of international brand hotels, but Palace Hotel Tokyo can match them blow for blow in terms of luxury and adds some lovely local touches on top – like the superlatively soft towels, made in Imabari, Japan’s centre of towelling manufacture for more than 100 years. Service is charming and genuine, from the doormen and the concierge to the bartenders and housekeeping. If you want to experience omotenashi – Japan’s famous hospitality – you’ll find it here in spades.
