Back in Asia: Tokyo

And our second week of travel has already passed.

This time in: TOKYO

Our trip began with an overnight flight with “Zipair” from Bangkok to Japan. “Zipair” is a Japanese low-cost airline whose offer offers little competition to Ryanair, with little space, no food or drink and no in-flight entertainment. However, the friendliness of the Japanese flight attendants, our snacks from the Thai convenience store, Kati's sophisticated travel setup and the view of Mt. Fuji during the landing approach made this quickly forgotten.

A wonderful day awaited us in Tokyo with sunshine and temperatures over 20 degrees and we took advantage of this for a walk in “Shinjuku Gyoen”, a large and incredibly beautiful park near our hotel. This had some similarities to the English Garden in Munich. Our stay here was short, however, as we were able to snag a spot for lunch at a popular restaurant.

At the popular restaurants in Tokyo it usually works like this: You go to the restaurant, take a number & get a QR code that keeps you informed about the queue and shows the time for your own table. This principle means that you sometimes have to wait 3 hours for a table, but you can't spend it waiting in front of the restaurant, but only waiting in front of your cell phone (e.g. in Shinjuku Gyoen). In our opinion, it's a great idea if you end up in one of the most popular local restaurants, although for us there wasn't much of a difference to the many other high-quality restaurants.

Overall, the week was of course all about food. We were able to try out some Japanese dishes and also discover new things:

• Day 1: Udon warm & cold (thick noodles with an elastic consistency)
• Day 2: Unagi (freshwater eel in soy sauce) on rice & tonkotsu ramen (noodles in a creamy pork soup, with boiled egg)
• Day 3: Sushi (including small white and gray slimy fish whose names even the Japanese didn't know) & Yakitori (Japanese grilled dishes)
• Day 4: Mitsufuku Dango (skewered, warm rice cakes with soy glaze & tsukemen (wheat noodles dipped in a hearty broth)
• Day 5: Kaiseki omakase (a set menu of typical Japanese snacks) & Izakaya (actually the description for a place that many Japanese choose for a nightcap with a snack after work. We made several out of one snack and were here for dinner )
• Day 6: Katsu-Sando (Katsu = abbreviation for katsuretsu, cutlet, Sando = abbreviation for sandwich, i.e. the Japanese schnitzel roll) & Tonkatsu (Japanese pork schnitzel)

In addition to eating a lot, we tried to walk as much of Tokyo as possible.

Some districts of Tokyo are known for different things and so one morning we focused on browsing Kappabashi Street with its hundreds of kitchen and tableware shops, and another day we were looking for technology (or camera films). Strolled through Akhiabara and explored Ginza (more luxury shopping), Harajuku & Omotesando (neighboring districts with lots of small shops).

Two other highlights are a little closer to nature. On our last day we finally made it to Meiji Shrine, a beautiful shrine located in a park in the middle of Tokyo, with lots of sunshine. We also took a day to leave Tokyo and visit Mount Takao, known for Mitsufuku Dango as described above, a temple at the summit & the autumn foliage blossom.

Overall, we were thrilled by the city, the food, the people and especially the peace and order that Tokyo exudes despite its size and the number of people. For example, in one of the busier parts of the city, we were able to sleep with the window open every evening without waking up from traffic or voices. Definitely a luxury. We only woke up one morning. There was a small earthquake (6.4 Richter scale) in the neighboring region of Kanagawa. But it was enough that our room also shook and we were briefly frightened.

Our journey now continues in Hakone & Ito, both regions known for warm springs and beautiful nature. A good balance to the hustle and bustle of the city, although we are secretly looking forward to the hustle and bustle of Osaka.

Best regards,

Kati and Philip