Treasured Time with Family and Friends in Tokyo

The last time I visited Tokyo was on my own in Dec. 2011 and then before that was the last time I visited with my Father which was in October 2007.  Papa typically goes every few years, usually connected to when his shakuhachi club goes on an outing, and then he just stays on for the whole month.

I joined him on this trip and it was quite the adventure!

1. I arrived very early in the morning on Sat. Nov. 17 at Narita Airport. After taking a very early bus from Kichijyoji, Papa met me at Narita and we headed to Fujisawa to visit Fujio Ojisan and Yasuko Obasan. We had an enjoyable visit and it was great to hear the two brothers reminiscing over old times.

Here's the mini-beer that we did "kampai" with... can they be any smaller?

The first "adventure" was finding lodging in Fujisawa, a suburb about an hour outside of Tokyo. No problem, right? Wrong, after calling about 10 places we finally found this Edo-Era Ryokan two-train lines away!

Rustic is a compliment for this place. It had no hot water, bath, shower (that we could find) and the wash basin was more like a trough a farm animal would feed out of. The rooms were clean and quiet (as we had the whole entire place to ourselves, no other guests) and Japanese-style with sliding doors, low table and futon. The best part of it was the view overlooking the beach.

Here's a video of the ryo-kan



On the way to this ryo-kan we took this train line that had a special pink seated car that women travel in during rush-hour so they are not harassed by groping men.

In a very odd coincidence, the same cab driver that took us from Fujio-Ojisan's home to the train station and then a few hours later when we gave up on the train re-starting (stopped due to high winds and heavy rain) and waited in an incredibly long taxi line ... it was the same cab driver that ultimately took us back to our ryo-kan.  How did we realise this, the ease in which we were able to continue to the conversation from our first ride ... i.e., ah yes, you're the pair from Chicago and Sydney, Australia.   :)

Here's Papa with our dilapidated umbrella in the torrential rain, standing in the cab line. Like I said, always an adventure.

2. After visiting Fujio-Ojisan and Yasuko-Obasan again in the morning (Nov. 18), we met up with Ohoi-san for a visit to a local park well known for its beautiful Fall foilage. There was a local Farmer's Market where we tried some local fruit.

Ohoi-san's wife has climbed Mt. Fuji which is something I've always wanted to do. What I learned is that you're only allowed to climb during certain months of the year (changes but typically July-September) and that it can be done in two days. Ideally, I'd want to stay overnight at one of the accommodations so that the next morning I can rise early to enjoy the sunrise. Here's an overview of how climbing Mt. Fuji is accomplished. 

3.  On Nov. 19, our last day in the Fujisawa area, we visited Enoshima which is a place Papa visited on a school field trip. As we climbed up and down stair cases as we explored the area, Papa remembered having much more energy back then :)

4. On Nov. 21, we took the shinkansen to Izu. We took a very early shinkansen, arriving at around 10 a.m., at our lovely 5-star ryokan.  As check-in was not until later, we walked to the shore and had an early lunch at a restaurant specializing in the local seafood.

Then we walked into the park area where we had a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji.

The onsen at the ryokan was beautiful. The outdoor part had a lovely Japanese rock garden and waterfall. 

The next day, Ohoi-san and his wife took us towards the southern part of Izu and up along the eastern shore. There was a museum of shikue which is art of terra cotta/ceramic.

I especially enjoyed this Izu restaurant they took us to, it was hidden away in a residential area along a stream and on the edge of the forest the restaurant owner hunts in for boar and fish. 

Delicacy from Izu: Aiyo Sakana



Delicacy from Izu: Boar (I'm Year of the Boar)



Delicacy from Izu: Deer



Photo gallery from Izu

Bullet train from Izu back to Tokyo

5. Visiting the Horiuchi Ohaka, we paid our respects by cleaning the area of leaves and presenting colorful flowers. In a nearby ohaka I saw that a can of beer was left and I made a mental note of it for next time I visit as I remembered that Kikue-Obasan appreciated a small can of beer once and a while with dinner.

Afterwards we visited the Horiuchi home in Mitaka where Papa grew up. It’s being renovated into two new homes and we saw the framework being built of the two-storied homes.

For lunch we visited Tamiko Obasan who was married to my Obachan’s youngest brother Yasuo. My Obachan on Papa’s side was the oldest of 12 children. Papa had not seen Tamiko Obasan’s three children (his cousins) Chieko, Tetsuo and Fujio for many years so it was a wonderful lunch of reminiscing. It was fascinating to learn that Chieko and Tetsuo spent a few years in Baltimore, Maryland  and when they were in elementary schools there was no English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher so they had to rely on other students teaching them English. Both of them also trained up to New York and were present at my parents’ wedding in 1963. We also went to the senior home where Papa’s Umeko Obasan (she was the 11^th child, youngest daughter) and thus my Great Aunt. Papa played the shakuhachi for Umeko Obasan who seemed to recognize Papa. 

6. Afterwards we went to Asakusa, my favorite place in Tokyo to visit as a tourist. I love going to the delectable sweet place where Haruko Obasan took me on my very first visit to Asakusa when I was in elementary school.  And of course I had my #1 favorite dessert – Kuri zenzai.

Papa and I went on to the temple and then had dinner at a place famous for its unagi donburi. 

Here's a video from just outside the Kaminari-Mon

7. On my last day in Japan (Nov. 25), Papa and I explored the area around the ANA Intercontinental Hotel. First we visited a nearby temple, then we walked towards Parliament House, the Emperor's Palace and then we walked all the way to the newly renovated Tokyo eki.

Newly renovated Tokyo-eki

8. One of the "adventures" we had on this trip was the number of  hotels we stayed in and the number of times we shuttled our luggage back and forth to this hotel in Kichijyoji. As we hadn't planned what we were going to do each day, we hadn't booked hotels in advance. When we had determined our plans and searched for hotels, we learned that due to the holiday long weekend there were no hotel rooms on the Friday night, Nov. 23  (we stayed with Papa's friend from Waseda University) and on the Saturday, Nov. 24 we booked the last hotel room available at the ANA Intercontinental Hotel which was a "Club level" room for $500/night. 

Lesson learned is that there are ryokan that are not on the typical hotels.com Websites.  

9. Here's a slide show of some odd things I notices on the trip. 

10. And when I saw this Green Tea flavored Kit Kat and Wasabi flavored Kit Kat I thought of my friend Michelle who loves Kit Kats. I doubt they'd go over very well in the US :)