A Day in Tokyo

Up early.

I have 3 things planned for today! Anything else is a bonus.

It’s already 19 deg C at 6:30 a.m.

First up: a ‘dress rehearsal’ to Shinjuku Station right in the centre of the city for our trip to Fuji tomorrow. Half an hour in - the green Yamanote line will be our friend today, as will Google Ai.

At Shinjuku (one of the main railway hubs in Tokyo) - after some pfaffing about - we find the JR (Japan Rail) East Service Centre and after a wait in a queue (and it is only about 7 a.m.!) we are shown how to use our QR codes to get the paper tickets from the ticket vending machine. These are now in our hot little hands ready for tomorrow.

Tick.

Then a train to Shibuya. This next one is a value-add: ‘breakfast’ at Starbucks - definitely not for the breakfast but to get views of the famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing. 

B’fast and coffee very ordinary but good views. On our exit out of Starbucks we pass a Pokémon Centre.

The city is not full-throttle yet.

But it IS by the time we return to the station. We experience our first train crush - there is the train guard on the platform with white gloves who pushes people on to an already packed train. 

As the train bustles along, we note the message up on the screen saying the Tokkaido shinkansen (fast train) has been suspended: ‘Animal on track’. Another message later says a Metro train is delayed due to ‘Luggage caught in door’ (!).

Back to Shinjuku - we can barely move for people. We find another JR East Service Centre and check the platform for tomorrow - forgot to ask that earlier … another tick!

We find our way to the famous 3D Cat Billboard outside Shinjuku. Very cute. Another value-add.

Back into the station - digital Suica card working a treat. The card readers detect it without you having to load it up. About $A3 a trip. Although MF-san encounters a problem - it has frozen (I had read about this with the digital version of the card) but the station attendant fixes it pronto!

Second item on the list: another train - this time to Kamiyacho Station at Azubudai Hills for the EPSON teamLabs Borderless, pre-booked for 10 a.m. It is an  immersive museum known for its colourful, futuristic digital art installations.

teamLabs was amazing!! Really amazing! Mind-boggling. And VERY disorienting. Lost MF-san here. We eventually linked up at the Tea Cafe. Loooong queue! But worth it for a yummy matcha tea complete with projected digital art.

So, another tick.

Next: 3rd item on the list is the Kabuki Theatre. I am soooo looking forward to this. Tickets are hard to get and for a single act, only become available after midday the day before on levels 2 and 4 only. I managed to order them online when the plane landed yesterday while we were waiting to be herded off.

Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes, and for the elaborate make-up.

So we will just see Act 3 today at 3 p.m.: ‘Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees’ which is one of the three great classics of the Kabuki repertoire.

We are by now in the Ginza area for this and we buy sandwiches for lunch from one of the popular 7-Eleven stores which we can use the Suica card for payment. People rave about the egg sandwiches - and they are Eggcellent and only 270 yen ($A2.80 !!!). 

And a great coffee at a cafe nearby.

I ❤️ the Kabuki-za but MF-san struggles to stay awake - although he came alive when there was the samurai sword fighting. This was a fantastic piece of choreographing.

Afterwards we walked down to the Seiko clock tower (watches in-store well outside our pay grade).

The Nissan Crossing takes you from there to the Nissan showroom opposite. The cafe upstairs has matcha lattes (finely ground powder made from specially grown and processed green tea) with a photo of us ‘screen-printed’ on top - cute! We shared it watching the view below of busy commuters heading home.

We take the Marunouchi Line back into Shinjuku and we walk (now somewhat wearily) to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (243 m tall!). There is quite a crowd of onlookers viewing the gorgeously colourful projection show screened every night.

I have set my heart on dinner at an izakaya: Japanese pub. We find one after a long long (!) walk back to Shinjuku. It is up a flight of decrepit stairs and I am prepared to back out but when we turn a corner on the landing and put our heads through the door, the place appears to be the ‘real deal’. It is just what I had hoped for: great food and vibe, full of people. Staff are nice and menu has English translations. We order yummy fried chicken pieces, meat skewers (which I thought were awful), the most delicious boiled dumplings and a dry and a sweet junmai saké.

We arrived back some time after 9 p.m. - footsore and weary - the train stuff now wearing a bit thin with the Yamanote line experiencing delays and long walks.  But we do see the cat again!

MF-san has lost his card to the hotel room.

Walked 15 kms.