Tokyo

Tokyo is a city of contrasting rhythms, like driving in and out of tunnels on a bright summer’s day. Now you’re in a dark subway, and now in a bright, busy station with thousands of people; now you’re walking through small, mellow residential streets, and now within a cacophony of pedestrian crossings, flashing lights and billboard soundtracks. It’s a sensory overload, but one I was happy to give in to for a week.

Here are some standout moments:

The gargantuan buildings of Shinjuku, contrasted with small, quiet gardens…

The insane sensory overload of Takeshita St in Harajuku, complete with giant rainbow fairy floss for Aelie and a modest haul of kawaii (cute) gifts for friends back home…

Watching the youths dressed in traditional kimonos at Asakusa Main Street and the Senso-ji Shrine posing every few steps for photos (no photos of said youths as posting publicly without permission is against the law - I’m hoping these faces are blurry enough for me not to have crossed that line!)…

The immersive Infinite Crystal Universe artwork at teamLab Planets - hundreds and thousands of LED lights strung from the mirrored ceiling flashing on and off in multiple different patterns and colours (no photo can really do it justice!). What’s going through Sim’s mind here is a rapid calculation of just how many LED lights you’d need to recreate it and how much it would cost!

Here’s the Moss Garden of Resonating Microcosms artwork - probably one of my better photos from the whole exhibition. Check out the full set here.

Gotoku-ji Temple with its thousands of cat statue offerings…

Aelie’s and my first onsen experience together - fun to dress like twins in the yukata (bathing or summer kimono) and a satisfying sense of ritual in following the etiquette, which is: (1) dress in yukata with underwear only, (2) once you get to the spa, undress completely and go into the bathing area, (3) wash your body thoroughly at your own shower station, often sitting on a little plastic stool, (4) use a small plastic bucket to slowly tip the very warm spa water over your body to prepare for the temperature of the bath, and finally (5) soak. Ahhhh…

Stunning 360 views from Shibuya Sky, including a view of magisterial Mt Fuji through the clouds…

Some other highlights:

• The sheer scale and operational magnificence of DisneySea and how well they do at making you feel like you could actually be in a Disney movie
• Watching the professional gamers’ hands fly at a game parlour in Akihabara
• Walking the back streets through residential zones, imagining what it would be like to live here and marvelling at the use of every square inch
• Sampling ramen, once at Afuri, which uses chicken and dashi based stock with a hint of lemon (very refreshing in hot weather!), and once at Jikasei Mensho (I tried the Tori Paitan with wagyu beef) - both were slightly lighter broths than I’ve previously had and really really good!.

Truly one of the great cities of the world.

Next stop: Matsumoto and the Tateyama-Kurobe Route through the Japanese Alps.