Tokyo: Where tradition and modernity meet

Japan has long been on the bucket list. On this trip we decided just to visit Tokyo. We stayed in Shinjuku City, one of Tokyo’s 23 city wards located to the west of Tokyo City. It is known for its karaoke rooms, nightlife, neon-lit red light district and Japan’s busiest train station. Despite this, like the rest of Tokyo, it is extremely safe and clean. Tokyo is like no other major city in the world: organised and tidy, the people are extremely polite and there is a seamless fusion of traditional and contemporary life. It is impossible not to fall in love with this city and its people.

On our first day we got our bearings with the metro system to take the underground from Shinjuku to Ginza where we spent the day wandering around Tokyo’s upmarket shopping district. We ticked off the first sight seeing item by visiting the 12 storey flagship Uniqlo store. This was the first of many Uniqlo store visits. When in Rome… Later we met up with our friends, Gavin and Ed, who were also staying in Tokyo for the week. We had a cocktail at the Bvlgari bar and then spent the evening together in Shibuya, a lively district of Tokyo that is full of restaurants, bars, clubs, late-night shopping and is famous for the “Shibuya scramble crossing” - where as many as 3000 people cross a single intersection in every direction at any one time, in a surprisingly, but typically Japanese, calm and orderly fashion.

After crossing the busiest thoroughfare in the world, we found our way through the hustle and bustle to a restaurant called Toritake- an izakaya style of Japanese dining where drinks and share plates of food are served tapas style. I was introduced to plum wine and had it with every meal thereafter. Much to Dylan’s disappointment, this was also a restaurant where you sit on a cushion on the floor at a low table. I loved it, but needless to say, it was the first and last night we sat sans chair.

After dinner we went to the first cocktail bar of the trip, SG Club. We were a little unsure about what the Tokyo cocktail bar scene would deliver, but it did not disappoint. SG Club has three levels: we started on the ground floor bar, which was decked out in Christmas decorations floor to ceiling. While the Japanese don’t celebrate a traditional Christmas, the city is covered in fairy lights and Christmas decorations, creating a Christmasy feeling without all the other crap that comes along with it. We enjoyed a Christmas-themed cocktail before heading downstairs to the intimate underground bar. The service was excellent and the drinks top notch. We even saw a proposal, with the bartender popping a bottle of champagne for the couple.

Our second day was full of sight seeing. After starting the day with a quality coffee from Blue Bottle we walked first to the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden where I took plenty of photos, and then took the metro north to Taito City to see the Sensō-ji temple. Completed in 645, this temple, which is Tokyo’s oldest, was built to honor Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Leading up to the temple is a street filled with vendors selling all sorts of food and souvenirs. We ate lunch (and drank plum wine) at a nearby restaurant. One of the most amusing things in Tokyo is all of the plastic food on display in the restaurant windows. At first I thought it was a tourist thing, but then realised it was everywhere.

Before dinner we tried to go to the exclusive cocktail bar Gen Yamamoto but couldn’t get in. We had a delicious dinner of gyoza and ramen at a local restaurant Nishiazabu Gogyo with plenty of sake and plum wine, and then made up for the cocktail bar experience at a rum bar called Ariapita rum and punch. Dylan and I sat at the bar and by 11pm we were the only ones left. We stayed until closing at 2.00am. While the bartender spoke little English, he was incredibly friendly and generous and we managed to communicate until the wee hours of the morning through the common language of rum. We tried all sorts of new rums and left with recommendations for where we could buy a peculiar Japanese agricole-style rum that we had tried called Nine Leaves. The bartender also recommended that we try a new boutique cocktail bar called Bar Vie Lembranca that his friend had just opened. We promised we would visit the bar and so he gave us a card with a message written in Japanese for his friend.

Over the next couple of days we spent some time shopping. We picked up a supply of alcohol to take home from a specialty store called Shinanoya, including the Nine Leaves rum. We also went to Kappabashi street in Taito City, which is a popular shopping street known for its numerous restaurant-supply shops and kitchen-equipment dealers. I was seeking out a Japanese knife and some chopsticks. After visiting what seemed like every knife dealer on the street I eventually bought the perfect santoku (an all purpose knife) going back to the very first shop we went to. With my new knife and a bag full of chopsticks, soy sauce bowls and other eating knick knacks we went in search of some ramen for lunch. We found a tiny restaurant seating only 6 people where you order from a vending machine-style box, which is a common concept in Tokyo for ordering ramen. We received a ticket from the vending machine and then once 2 seats opened up we watched as the chef prepared our ramen.

Later that evening We met up with Gavin and Ed for yet more cocktails. We had been waiting to go to Ben Fiddich as it hadn’t been open since we arrived in Tokyo. We eagerly arrived 10 minutes after it opened at 6.00pm, but it was already full, so we waited at the sister bar downstairs. We never did get in, but the alternative was also a fantastic bar. It was dark and intimate and decorated in an exquisite, but subtle, Scottish theme. They had no menu and a rare collection of hard-to-find spirits that the knowledgeable bartenders could turn into the most delightful cocktail. Feeling happily buzzed, we headed for our dinner reservation at Rokkasen where we enjoyed Japanese bbq. After 2 hours of unlimited food and drink we headed back to our hotels feeling full and merry.

The next day was Christmas Eve. After a slow start to the day we made our way to the Meiji Jingu shrine, which is a beautiful shinto shrine surrounded by forest, providing a tranquil respite from the surrounding bustling city. That evening we went to the Christmas markets at Shiba Park for a gluhwein, but with the late nights and cocktails catching up to us, we turned in early.

Unfortunately Dylan was unwell overnight, so he stayed in bed at the hotel with room service for lunch while I joined Gavin and Ed for our Christmas Day lunch. We ate at Crista where we enjoyed a three course meal and free flow champagne for 2 hours. Afterwards, we wandered the boutique shopping streets around Harajuku and then went to the Park Hyatt for another round of free-flow drinks and canapes. We sat there into the night enjoying a beautiful vantage point high above the sprawling sparkling city below, enjoying the drinks and food along with an occasional live performance of carols.

On our last full day in Tokyo we first went to the Tsukiji fish market. The famous early morning tuna auction and enormous wholesale market at Tsukiji is now closed due to its move to the new Toyosu market, but there is still a bustling outer market at Tsukiji among its narrow alleyways and ramshackle shops. After our fill of fishy smell we wandered through the city to the Imperial Palace. The Palace is the primary residence of the Emperor of Japan and is located in a large park near the centre of Tokyo. We didn’t linger long as it was our last evening and we still had a couple of cocktail bars to tick off the list.

First we went back to the rum bar for a couple of drinks “for old time’s sake” and then went to INC Cocktails which was another unique experience. Again, the bartender was incredibly friendly and so genuinely humbled to serve you at his bar. The bar was set up with a level of precision I have never seen. Every piece of bar ware was perfectly aligned along the highly polished stainless steel bar top. To the side of the bar was a vintage record player with shelves neatly packed full of records. Between cocktails the bartender would wander over and set the next record. We enjoyed two cocktails here and then somewhat reluctantly moved on to keep our promise to go to Bar Vie Lembranca.

However, this turned out to be harder to do than expected. After wandering lost around a cemetery for some time, we finally came across an unsuspecting door of a building with a plain and nondescript facade. We tentatively entered and found a tiny room with only a bar and six stools along it. We asked, ‘Is this Bar Vie Lembranca?’ to which the bartender nodded with a look of absolute astonishment on his face. No doubt he was surprised by these two foreigners finding his little known bar in an obscure part of Tokyo. We told him the bartender from the rum bar had sent us and showed him the the message on the card he had sent us with. Apparently it said something to the effect that “these two Australians love cocktail bars and rum”.

There were two other Japanese men at the bar, but after about an hour they left and then we were the only ones there until closing. The bartender, Shuji, has perfected the art of cocktail making. He presented us with 6 unique creations, all using unique house-made additions. In addition to the cocktail, we also received a nip of each type of spirit to taste on its own.

At the end of the night, his eftpos machine wouldn’t accept any of our cards and we had hardly any cash. He insisted that the cash would be enough and that we could pay him the rest “next time”, knowing we were flying out the next day and there would be no next time. We left to find an ATM and returned with enough cash to pay for our drinks. He was so overwhelmed that he gave us a bottle of rare gin to take home and also tried to give Dylan a bottle of very expensive rum. We refused the second as it was just too much and our suitcases were already full. I feel sure that nowhere else in the world would you experience a response like that. If our experience with Japanese hospitality, generosity and humility could be summarised, it would be in this one experience.

On our last morning before flying out we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which is a great place to go for a view of Tokyo. There is free access for the public to the top of the building and the outlook is spectacular. The viewing area has a 360 view through large glass windows on every wall from where you can see nothing but sprawling city in every direction, right to the limits of the horizon. On a very clear day, if you are lucky, you can also spot Mt Fuji in the distance.

There was also an exhibit in the building for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics so we checked out the Olympic flag and weird mascots before heading back to the hotel to check out and head to the airport.

We barely scratched the surface of Tokyo, let alone Japan. However, within moments of arriving in the country I immediately understood why every person who I have spoken to that has ever been to Japan has loved it. It oozes tradition and at the same time embraces modern life.