Japan 2024

Day 10 – Day 6 of tour

A good sleep!!! Amazing croissants at breakfast! And decent coffee. Love the deep fried lotus root with the scrambled eggs 😊 and the almond jelly cubes are delicious (made with agar).

Sunny today but single digits when we left so three layers on to start. We rode 6 km to Takefu Village to visit a knife making collective, 14 individual artisans making distinctly different knives/sythes. The region was selected by the original knife making master because of the excellent water; they are also known for pottery. Unfortunately we didn’t see them at work as it was a religious holiday for the village, but they kindly opened the knife museum, toured us around the workshop where they are made, and then opened the shop (we made it worth their while!). There was an amazing art piece there that was made with suspended knives and mirrors.

Workshop building and museum

Forge (coke fed) and knife making equipment in workshop

Knife sharpening stations – each has a different stone

VERY hot in summer and the back wall away from the forge VERY cold in winter.

Originally making scythes, they have branched out into all kinds of knife making.

art with mirrors and knives!

The complex was fairly new, and full of glass – someone from our group walked into a heavy glass door that was moving and got quite a clunk!

Then it was off towards Tsuruga, 40 km or so away; for the most part, once through Takefu village, we were on bike paths. We had strict timelines, as there is a tunnel system from the original railroad built in the 19th century to move goods unloaded from ships (described in the shipping museum a couple of days ago) but they were under construction and not usually open weekdays. Our guide had gotten special permission for us to get in, and so we had between 1 and 2 p.m. to get through.

The riding was lovely – along a river, with rice paddies on the sides and feather grass on the river side.

We had to get off and walk a couple of times due to groups of small children on the path near a school; so cute. They formed a ring holding hands around their carer as we went by.

Starting to get a little autumn colour, but the forests are mainly conifer.

rice paddies on the right

croquet course!

We rode to a village famed for its soba noodles, a very quiet and small village but which had some amazing stores – a specialty coffee bar! and a high end clothes store. Yet there was barely anyone about. The place we went for lunch is 200 years old, now an NGO (non-profit) but used to be a hotel; it wasn’t frequented enough as it’s too far off the beaten path so now serves soba noodles and functions as the HQ of the NGO. Beautiful old traditional house.

A local came by to chat, quite excited to see a group of foreigners at their soba place, and gave us all pamphlets about the NGO. He also took us upstairs and showed us ancient skis, and told us about a “ski robot” he and another villager had invented and built in his house many years ago. They were invited to Innsbruck to give a talk about it… He wanted to come riding with us, and escorted us on bike to the edge of the village 🙂

He also brought to show us a 100 year old Japanese massage tool, which worked by hand turning and was rated fairly effective by the British couple who tried it.

The food was delicious, apart from the dish on the upper left; they served us the water the soba was cooked in, which likely has some nutrients, but it tasted like dishwater. The upper right is a dongo ball, usually made with glutinous rice but I suspect here was buckwheat flour, served with ground almond. It didn’t go down well with most of the Caucasians but I enjoyed it.

Some of us headed to the coffee bar and were amazed at the variety of coffees to be had. It took a while to get them though as they use a traditional drip method and clearly weren’t in a hurry. Amazing to see that in such a small village, however… the few people we did see waved and smiled at us as we rode by.

Each cup was ground with selected coffee beans and slowly dripped through, though it looks like there is a machine there as well.

We set off fairly promptly to make our time at the tunnels. A fairly long but gradual hill led up to the start, and the first tunnel was a little downhill which was a tad disconcerting in the dark. We had been warned to only ride in the middle as there were potholes on the edges and that was indeed true; a couple of places were quite wet and the lights had burnt out making it pitch black, but fortunately in most of them it wasn’t long enough to be a problem (the lights on our bikes were completely useless). One long tunnel however had no lights whatsoever and you couldn’t see the other end (there was no light at the end of the tunnel) so it was like skiing in a whiteout – no idea of which end was up. I walked most of that one.

Getting ready to go into the first tunnel.

There were about 8 tunnels in all, owned by different companies apparently and in order to patch the route together each company had to be individually contacted. Some refused initially and then agreed when the others gave permission. Trying to imagine construction of these in the 18th century is mind boggling – dynamite didn’t appear until 1867. Maybe gunpowder from China helped the excavation?

Not my favourite part of the trip, interesting to be sure but having cataracts doesn’t assist in seeing in the dark.

Nice views from up there though! Tsruga Bay.

And so from here it was mostly downhill, over back roads and bike paths beside and under a major highway at times and eventually into Tsruga where we will be staying for two days. After the usual soak in the onsen, dinner together with far too much food and drink (pre-ordered inclusive dinner) and VERY noisy and hot in the restaurant so was glad to get back into the cool air. It was generally chilly today, up to 14C in the direct sunshine but cool when moving and apparently another cold day over most of Japan, cooler than yesterday. That’s what we bring layers for though!

Today’s distance: 51 km, 349 m elevation gain

Highlight: the soba lunch and village in a close tie with the knife museum.

Day 9 – tour day 5

Lousy sleep last night… After an amazing buffet breakfast we set off in sprinkling rain and grey clouds to Oshima Bridge, where a shrine is located on an island. Very windy with waves crashing onto the rocks, but a surfer was out enjoying it. Colder today as well, esp in the wind. Dramatic change in the coast, from sandy beaches to rocky.

The bridge is a lovely red – we were supposed to visit at sunset yesterday but it was too cloudy to have much of a sunset.

The wind was fierce all day but fortunately it was mostly a tailwind. The times it wasn’t, and you came around a corner into its full force, were sobering.

We headed south along the coast, on roads this time but they were fairly quiet. The ride was a “free ride” which meant the competitive ones raced ahead as we all went at our own pace…

Had the boats not had Japanese writing on the side, this could be a small fishing village in Scotland

Quiet harbour – effective breakwater

some odd sedimentary rock formations

volcanic eruptions left this

We stopped for lunch at an oceanside restaurant – good to get out of the wind. Lovely spot, complete with its’ own raptor posing for a picture… the eagles were playing on the wind gusts outside the windows while we ate.

looking north from whence we’d come

Kindly posing for a picture…

A Room with a view…

Interesting food – seafood taco salad (was very good but no resemblance to taco – maybe b/c it was a tomato base to the seafood part?)

After lunch another free ride – we all waited outside the restaurant for the guide to get going and were almost hypothermic by the time we were given the green light.

Pretty coastline, but quite rough – apparently doesn’t deter the surfers.

We went through multiple tunnels, one a km in length – thankfully, as we would otherwise have been going up and down like a yo yo. No gentle seaside path in this landscape!

Eventually we gathered together again and did the hill – 370 m in 4 km. Grades weren’t too bad though and happy to report that I wasn’t the lantern rouge!

It quickly cooled down on the other side of the summit as we are approaching the mountains, and we rode through pleasant villages, rice paddies, and over a few more undulations over the next 15 km before hitting the large town of Kuzuokacho in the Echizen region (during rush hour). This region is known for its artisans, particularly knife makers and pottery but unfortunately there is a local festival tomorrow so we will miss out on both as they are closed for the occasion. We are in a chain hotel tonight – also with onsen which was greatly appreciated after being cold today. Dinner was pre-ordered in the restaurant across the street but apparently the guide hadn’t read the food restrictions page? and despite several discussions previously hadn’t ordered anything without meat. They quickly retooled though and I had excellent sashimi (and cold tofu which was edible on top of hot rice).

We learned today was Japan’s coldest day of the fall season, all over the country – it snowed in Haikado, and on Mt. Fuji, which was late for the latter to get its first snow. The skiers are happy! We were very lucky it never rained seriously – it seemed to be trying at times but never quite caught on. Being wet and cold would have been another story. Fortunately sun forecast for the next two days. There is a saying in Japan “Three days warm, four days cold” and this same place next Thursday is apparently forecast to be 23C.

Today’s mileage: 71 km, elevation gain 588 m.

Today’s highlight; watching the brave surfers at Oshima Bridge.

Day 8 – tour day 4

Lovely hotel, much quieter and smaller than the Las Vegas style Prince Hotel. Nice buffet breakfast with decent coffee, then we packed up and headed out for 8 a.m. under grey skies, just spitting a little. Forecast was for clearing later, and clear it did, yielding to lovely sunny skies for the majority of the day plus a bonus, a tailwind for a good part of it.

We cycled out of Kanazawa initially on roads then onto a bike path, then turned south onto a bike only path. Gorgeous, with beautiful sandy beaches.

the only place I’ve seen garbage, and that was mainly b/c it washes in from the sea, and blows around.

The beaches were amazing, mile upon mile of sand. Some surfing done here apparently.

We had frequent stops at strategic locations where Hammu could come in with the vehicle and we were well provisioned. Japanese toilets, in parks and public places, are AMAZING. Most have heated seats and bidet functions and are spotlessly clean. At times it looked a little Dunkirk-ish, with bamboo barricades for wind on the inland side and the breakwater concrete pilings on the sea side.

One of several nutrition breaks.

We stopped for lunch at a park close to a family mart which had an amazing selection of food; settled on some sushi (excellent), iced coffee and chestnut daifuku. Views were lovely but needed to be in the sun as the wind was chilly.

As we cycled along there before lunch, there was a continuous roar of fighter jets as they were apparently doing a military exercise in response to North Korea’s latest ICBM test. They all came back to base though and we had an excellent view of them landing as they flew over our coastal path into the AFB beside it. Some $$ in jet fuel used there… The white buildings to the north on the point in this picture are the AFB hangar buildings.

After lunch we rolled out for a short stretch to a shipping museum in Kaga, where some elected to go in and pay the huge entrance fee of 350 yen (about $3.50). It was fascinating to see the difference in the building of this shipping merchant vs. the samurai house; apparently there was a lot of money to be made in that trade. They did one trip a year along the west coast, picking up goods in the south and selling them as they went up, then loading up in the north and doing the same on return. The house was huge, with a huge garden. Filled with interesting artifacts, and an interesting tree out front with a pine tree growing out of a camelia tree – likely bird droppings with a seed that took root. Someone also found a persimmon growing, which we’d had for breakfast.

We had some roads and detours around construction on the coastal path, but the traffic wasn’t bad and there’s safety in numbers. Lots of lovely little fishing villages and lagoons, with rice paddies on the inland side. A few cranes were spotted; they are a feature of Japanese art. Only one section of solar panels, and one lone windmill.

We had a few undulations to deal with at this point, but none were very strenuous and we rolled into our lovely hotel with sea views about 3 p.m. We were told we were one of the fastest groups ever as they had planned to have us arrive at 4:30 and had to adjust the lunch spot. Must have been that tailwind…

Happily not feeling too tired, especially after the lovely onsen (hot baths). A great tradition…

Dinner was amazing, a buffet with an excellent choice of Japanese food, ending with mochi, and 4 different flavours of ice cream including yuzu!!! and chestnut. Yummm.

Today’s mileage: 78 km, 260 m elev gain

Highlight of the day: scapes of the sandy beaches in the warm sunshine and the blue and green ocean beyond.

Think I was a bit optimistic about that jetlag being done…. lousy sleep last night.

Alas the Japanese restaurant was closed this a.m., so in order to bypass the buffet circus on the first floor I went to the Chinese restaurant for breakfast. Adequate but absolutely dreadful coffee.

We collected and headed over to the Metro to experience the Tokyo rush hour with all our luggage – likely not popular but the unfailingly polite people said nothing as they packed in around us, all in business suits. No need to hang onto anything as we were so packed in it would have been impossible to move. After a few stops there was a mass exodus so we got to sit down, but it filled up again quickly; we were extruded at Tokyo station. It is another huge station, a major connection spot for the bullet trains and we transferred to our train platform with several collection spots along the route. We are like an accordion, spreading out, pushed together at a collection point and then spreading out again 😊. We made it uneventfully to the right platform and found the right queue to be in – quite confusing with parallel lines for queueing for this train, and then the next, and the tickets don’t have any English on them so we got a lesson for future trips we may take without guides on how to interpret the numbers. Very helpful.

The bullet train took about 1 3/4 hour to deposit us in Kanazawa with a few stops enroute. Very efficient, and to the minute in leaving and arriving. A luggage team was formed for our group as we’d had to pile everything at the opposite end to where we were sitting, so they passed the bags out to the platform while we debarked on the opposite end of the car. Might mention I haven’t nearly the worst size bag! The prize for compactness goes to a couple from Colorado who arrived at the platform with a SMALL carryon size suitcase and daybacks full but not bulging. When I complimented them I learned they had craftily sent their hiking and Kyoto stuff via luggage courier from the Shingawa hotel directly to the Kyoto hotel for pickup on arrival….

Kanazawa is a modern and attractive railway station which we quickly cluttered up outside the exit. We had to dig out our seats and pedals for swapping out so we appropriated a back lane and it was a mess of luggage and bike bits being handed to the bike mechanic (Hammu) and much to the amusement of the school kids going by.

Kanazawa’s modern station. The fellow standing in the middle is a pig farmer from Denmark, lovely guy with a great sense of humour (apparently owns and operates a farm in Sweden as well).

Hammu, in our support vehicle, waits patiently for bike bits.

We get a safety talk with rules of the road from Tsuyu, complete with pictures 🙂

Formal group photo while we’re still clean and smiling LOL

One last group photo before we start the cycling in front of the lovely station

Then we took the luggage to the hotel for dropoff and got lunch while the tour crew swapped pedals, and even managed to get the saddles on although we’d originally been told that would have to be done later tonight. The brakes are backwards to what we’re used to in North America, and the hybrid gearing I will never get used to… as usual, the handlebars are way too low for me so I’m stooped over uncomfortably – the bikes come in “small, medium and large” (cringe) but they did say they’d try and work on something tonight. They are all hardworkers! Our tour leader “T” has been doing it a long time and intermittently tells us stories of outrageous behaviour by clients in the past…. like the one who set the fire alarm off at a hotel thinking it was the elevator button, but managed to break it in the process, of course in the middle of the night, so everyone had to listen to the fire alarm beeping for an hour until it could be fixed… Maybe that’s why they can’t use the same hotel anymore LOL?

Definitely cooler here, with a brisk wind. We dug deeper for more layers… cloudy today but no rain.

We were free to forage for lunch on our own and most headed to the food court at the nearby shopping centre. I had an awesome seafood okonimayake … half of it went under an ice pack in the hotel lobby afterwards (doggy bag) thanks to the translator device. Learned in Mongolia the perils of eating a full meal before cycling…The staff looked completely blank when I asked if they could store it in a fridge somewhere for the afternoon but the translator did an excellent job of getting the message across and we compromised on the ice pack as they didn’t seem to have a fridge available.

So off we went after the obligatory safety talk and explanation of the rules of the road in Japan – slightly different hand signals, esp. stop and the fact that bikes never “take the lane” as in North America. It was a bit daunting riding on the opposite side of the street at first, but it was literally “follow the leader” so not much to think about. We rode in city traffic, then onto a pedestrian path along a canal, stopping for a brief visit to a samurai house from the 13th century. Very plain.

As the houses were so close together, fires were a real problem with the possibility of wiping out whole neighbourhoods, and they were frequent. So the practice was to create a “firebreak” by knocking down the houses in the immediate proximity to limit the spread.

Sleeping quarters for 4.

It is a pretty city in the historical part, and the narrow streets and alleys we cycled in the canal district were lovely.

Only a few tourists around, and apparently many less pedestrians than usual. Unfortunately unable to get pics as it’s illegal to take pictures while moving on a bike, and we didn’t stop. It was full gas to the next stop, Kenruoken gardens, originally the gardens of Kanazawa castle. Reputedly one of the three best landscape gardens in Japan, absolutely gorgeous. It sits atop a hill in Kanazawa, which we pedalled up and I was chastened to find it hard work until I realized at the top I had it on the hardest gear… will take a while to get the system of those gears.

Very interesting to see the work crews starting to affix the winter supports – almost every limb is painstakingly affixed to a trellis to support it for the load of winter snow. Not a blade is out of place in the garden…

The work crews were getting a lot of attention…

The fountain is Japan’s oldest – gravity fed (the gardens are on a hill).

starting to see a little autumn colour….

Three little maids are we?

Autumn variety of Sakura cherry tree – white blossoms are just finishing. Apparently glorious in the spring (and packed solid with people).

Several reflective ponds and four distinct sections to the gardens.

Water course

Waterfall

I took a lot of pictures! It was breathtaking.

Back onto the bikes, and home along the canal on a different path – hopefully have gotten my bike snafu out of the way for the trip as I caught a clip on the exit bollard on a sharp left and went down. Happily no damage to my raincoat and shorts, the biggest concern LOL – a couple of bruises likely and a small scrape on the elbow. All soothed by a visit to the natural hot springs onsen on the roof of the hotel after check in. The bikes were stored close by in the huge parking “lot” for bikes at the nearby shopping centre but will be moved for better security overnight. Apparently there are bike thefts albeit the locks they put on them would last about 2.5 seconds in Vancouver and the staff seemed pretty confident they would be protective…

We had our 6 p.m. briefing and have our first long ride tomorrow, on a bike path along the coast. Weather forecast is for a tail wind fortunately though rain to start, hopefully not for too long. Some headed out for dinner but I have retired to consume the second half of my okonimyaki with miso soup and seaweed crackers, chased down by a chestnut daifuku.

Highlight of the day – undoubtedly the Renkouren gardens, with the alleys in the canal district second.

Wow. Talk about a zoo – breakfast with the masses. Three restaurant choices for included breakfast; Chinese, Japanese sit down set menu (unknown if it contains meat) and buffet in lobby. I elected for the buffet as did most of the group, and the lineup was 15 mins to get in, a huge snaking line of mostly Spaniards it seemed. Queueing for food at each section of the buffet also meant it was cold by the time it got back to the table. Give me my boiled eggs in the kettle anyday. Coffee came from a machine which could use some upgrading – came out lukewarm = cold by the time you get to it back at the table, even though that was my last stop. I’ll try a different restaurant tomorrow although I hear the lineups are as long at the Chinese restaurant.

Waking at normal time now (5:30 a.m.) so will declare jetlag gone. I accidentally got off the elevator on the floor below mine after breakfast and OMG – it’s a smoking floor. Absolutely disgusting. Couldn’t find any stairs and waited quite some time for another elevator with my hand over my nose and breathing as little as possible…. I keep getting lost on the way to my room as I can’t remember the room number and it’s completely homogenized, every room on every floor looks exactly the same… Housekeeping is going to have fun today as I’ve done a wash and everything is hung up in the bathroom LOL.

We collected at 9 a.m. and headed out by Metro to Sensoji temple, arriving about 10 a.m. by which time the throngs of people had thickened. First a good secret – the tourist info station across the road from the temple has a 5th floor viewpoint and we got a good view, and a history lesson up there about the temple. It has been relatively impermeable to fires and earthquakes b/c of its building, and used to be out by itself so the stalls in front grew up to service people making the trek, with food and fuel. Now of course, it’s all touristic. We fought our way through to the temple, got some more history and then had free time so I quickly lighted it out of the main temple area and explored the arcades/stalls beside – they haven’t been open the other times I was there. The guides said it wasn’t as crowded as they had expected, as it is a national holiday/long weekend and locals are out and about (the trains were more crowded than usual as a result) but there were long lineups everywhere for food, souveniers etc. The playland area was also running and one could hear the kids squealing in the little roller coaster.

Sensoji in the centre, from the tourist info building, with long line of stalls in front

Small shrine at the back

There were a number of women walking towards the shrine in beautifully ornate kimonos; our guide said it was common to dress up on a holiday and get an instagram picture of self at a shrine… in the back streets stumbled upon a bride getting prepped (hair and face) undercover (to right).

We reassembled and headed another couple of stops to Ueno Park, where we learned some more about the shrine there and the history of the park, the oldest in Japan. We also got a talk on what to do in an earthquake and then we were let loose for the afternoon. Some (including myself) headed over to the nearby former black market district which was also jam packed. Warm day again in the sun, 22C and unseasonably warm; there are multiple food producers in tiny stalls and it must be unbearable with the hot friers and grills cooking in the summer, bad enough today.

Ueno Park from the shrine – I visited the Tokyo Museum here a few days ago and was impressed by its’ size in the midst of the city.

Black market district (the yellow cap belongs to our guide, Tsuyata, who purposefully wears something bright so that we can pick him out of the crowd

I headed over next on my own to Shinjuku, a tony shopping district, to experience the landmark Isaten department store and get a sense of the retail. Shinjuku railway station is the busiest in the world (Tokyo station is second). Bit of a nightmare finding the right exit out of there tbh, esp as it was being renovated and some parts were closed. Out on the streets, it was pretty busy but not nearly as bad as expected though my first stop, the original Komeda coffee shop, had a queue waiting to get in for seating. Coffee really meh, watery and lukewarm – wouldn’t go out of my way again to get their coffee, and didn’t get any food as there was no place outside to sit and eat. One interesting fact – since the Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, first all the garbage cans in subway stations were removed, then shortly after the street garbage cans were removed as a security risk. So, it’s very difficult to jetison garbage which has to be factored in to food purchases… And yet, it’s still the cleanest big city anywhere – rarely a scrap of refuse on the streets. On to Isaten dept. store, which took some navigating to get to as the tall buildings played havoc with the map direction cone and the underpasses etc. were complicated. However, past the giant 3D cat cafe (there is a video display of a large cat playing on its’ front and quite a few admirers..) and onto roads with more and more pedestrians and I managed to find it. Quite the shopping district – seems like everything you could want was there and then some. And the first traffic jam I’ve seen – more cars on the road today than I’ve seen.

Skyscrapers galore – and the major dept. stores all have a presence here although apparently a couple of them are about to be redeveloped. Doesn’t look like they’re hurting though given the crowds around, most with bags in hand.

Isaten was an experience – 7 floors and a basement food floor. The Harods of Tokyo… I ogled my way through each floor, and must have stood out like the tourist I was in shorts and tshirt amongst the wealthy and neatly clad/well made up shoppers. The most fascinating floor (apart from the food floor!) was the housewares dept. – wow. Some of that furniture was amazing, and the china dept. was fascinating, full of beautiful stuff but mindblowingly expensive. Sadly no pictures allowed, but it was a sight indeed, as good as a museum (one could call it a contemporary museum?). There was a Vitamix demonstration in the appliance section, and they were making maple ice cream! and handing out samples. Managed to purloin one (starving by this time) and had a chat with the lovely rep who had a little English, and was tickled to hear I was from Canada, home of the maple syrup! There were a LOT of staff in each section, all unfailingly polite.

Well you can guess that my next stop was the food floor, the basement as usual. What a place. All of the patissiers have a presence here, counter after counter of amazing displays, a couple of chocolatiers only but lots of traditional Japanese items like Daifuku, beautiful nerikiri, biscuits, etc. etc. Fascinating. And a grocery store full of pricey wares – one of the fruits we tried at the ramen class was giant green grapes – fabulously sweet and tasty, and they are in all the high end stores. After trolling around for quite some time admiring the options I settled on a new patissier, Henri Charpentier, and it looked lovely:

Presentation is everything. His other creations looked as good, but this one I gave a 6/10, very disappointing with mundane chocolate cake inside, no contrasting textures and only two layers with a buttercream type filling. Shame. Wonder if the others were as poor? My fav, Sudahuru Aoki, had a counter there as well and I yearned for another of the caramel pear entremets instead as I tasted the one above.

Next stop was “Memory Lane”, a re-creation of the eating alleys of post war Tokyo, lined with food stalls of every imagineable type. Finally managed to sit down for lunch, about 3 p.m., and had a cross between tempura and ramen (tempura served atop soba noodles in a soup bowl). Delicious and appreciated! Quite the ambience there.

The outer road – a bit more room here

A few of the stalls were closed today being a holdiay.

Attractively decorated with fake autumn leaves

So far, few trees bedecked in autumn colours but we were reassured it is early for the northern regions, and that the south is turning as normal.

Back to the hotel in time for a briefing about tomorrow; we move to Kanazawa and start cycling. It should be a lot of fun moving all our luggage onto the crowded rush hour subway train…. The company just switched hotels recently from their previous one in Uneo which I gather they were having trouble with, but I question the current choice which is significantly distant from the city centre and also not attractive due to it’s monstrous size. I guess there is pressure on all hotels right now with the vast numbers of tourists descending on the country….

A complicated pack tonight making sure the pedal, saddle and other biking accoutrements are readily available for access in the next hotel lobby as we will be arriving before the rooms are available…. only a 13 km ride around the city scheduled, a shakedown of the bikes to ensure they are properly fit and working, before the real work begins.

Transferred by metro to Shinagawa this morning, about 1/2 hour southwest, noting that my luggage is ridiculously heavy already; I didn’t think I had done THAT much shopping LOL…. Fortunately the Tokyo system is pretty accessible, so with a bit of planning to locate the elevators I only had one set of stairs to tackle.

Long line for left luggage at the new hotel which is a megalopolis… three huge towers reminscent of Las Vegas. The antithesis of my choice. Repacked and dropped off the majority of the luggage and headed out to explore Shinagawa. The tourist sites recommended the shopping and entertainment areas around the hotel as a top visit choice (!) but I headed out to the closest garden which was an oasis in this densely built up city, and wandered around the embassy district surrounding which was quiet, green and pleasant. It was quite a warm day and unfortunately not in shorts today; this would have been a day for shorts and sandals.

Gotenyama gardens

After that respite from the bustle I trotted over to a charming book/coffee shop before heading over to Tennozu Island, reputedly the equivalent of Granville Island; trendy, artistic and lots of restaurants and pubs. I was routed through a lovely residential area; love that everyone has a bike and bike storage is everywhere!

And, there are potted plants EVERYWHERE.

Lots of little alleyways and walking paths – sometimes so narrow between houses you wonder how the servicing of the meters can be possible!

It is a holiday in Japan today, culture day; “A day for promotion of culture and the love of freedom and peace. On culture day, schools and the government award selected persons for their special, cultural achievements. The day was originally a public holiday because it was Emperor Meiji‘s birthday. Later in 1946, the post-war constitution was promulgated on this date which led to the establishment of Culture Day.” The fields in Tennozu Island were filled with soccer games and croquet (seniors), but much of the island’s retail stores were closed. It was a lovely day to sit and watch passersby though, and wander around looking for statues and sculptures. A band tried to get going across the river, but never quite made it through more than one song…

Then I stumbled into this AMAZING art store – Debbie, you should have been there…. It was called “Pigment” and it was stunning.

Store entrance

I got to chatting with the cashier, and she gave me a free entrance into the art show next door in the “What?” gallery – an interesting display! These were my favourites:

So, finally made it back to check in at the hotel and already missing my very basic APA (previous hotel). No coffee provided, only ONE outlet, and albeit the room is about twice the size it’s hot and stuffy, the ac doesn’t appear to work and no window to open. Hate these monolithic hotels… There are quiet closes on everything at the APA, and the thumping here is noticeable with doors slamming etc. At the last hotel there are frequent reminders to keep it down in corridors in consideration of others, and folk here are yakking on the way down… it is much more Western. Got a welcome package from the tour group at check in and suggestions that we visit Tokyo museums today rather than tomorrow as they are closed on Mondays; seems fairly useless information as it’s 45 mins back to Tokyo and the information was only given at checkin (we weren’t allowed to check in before 3 pm. making for a not inconsiderable queue at 3 p.m)…. Most of the museums close at 5.

Hotel view – Shingawa from the 18th floor. Used to be a trading/shipping centre, but the warehouses on Tennozu island, for example, have all been converted.

I filled in my health insurance form for tonight’s meeting, and headed up to the 39th floor where I’d read there was a bar and reputedly a view of Mt. Fuji. An easy way to see it, I thought! Unfortunately it’s too hazy today to see, so I passed on the $15 beer and headed back down to the hotel room to get organized. A 6:30 p.m. meeting in the lobby with the tour guide, a lemon squash back on the 39th floor during the trip briefing then a traditional Japanese dinner en groupe at a restaurant a short walk away rounded out the day. Good thing I am a pescetarian! There is a gluten intolerant person with us, but as much is rice based she should be okay?

Up at 4 a.m. – the good news is wakening two hours later than yesterday, the bad news is that I didn’t get back to sleep… Croissant 10/10 today, as good a one as I’ve had since Las Vegas Pastry School.

It is raining out and cooler, so a good day to be going to a class. A leisurely start after a cup of real coffee at a shop around the corner (vs. the instant Nescafé) fuelled me heading out in the wet towards Hikifune, to the Ichigo Ichei Wagashi school (someone’s private kitchen, much like the Chocolate Pedaller!). The metro was a bit confusing out here, changing to a different line though the train was the same, and unbeknownst to me it changed to an express train and not a local train so we flew by my stop and past another 4 before I could get out and reverse direction on a local train. At that point it was marked “express” or “local”, but I guess one is supposed to get off the original train, check the signboard and then get back on again if it’s a local train?? Quite confusing 🤷‍♀️. The apt. building was easy to find though so I still made it on time – always expect to get a bit lost at some point, so leave lots of extra time getting places.

The teacher, Michiko, was quite lovely – it turned out her two children were at home during the class although I didn’t hear a peep. One was apparently studying for an important exam, and the other drawing anime! The class started with an explanation of Wagashi creations, and their importance in Japanese culture; each of the types we made, 3 colour dango, daikufu and nerikeri are made for different festivals. Each of the colours in the dango represent different things; green for health (mugwort colours it), white for purity, and pink for the coming of spring (coloured with sakura, from cherry blossoms). Daifuku are a type of moshi made with seasonal fruits (and other materials such as chestnuts) and most often strawberries, but we used pineapple today as strawberries are not in season. The nerikiri are made in patterns that change with the season – these were really an art form.

The bases of wagashi are glutinous rice flour, white bean paste (white kidney beans) and adzuki bean paste (lovely flavour – I told Michiko that I use this in my vegetarian haggis recipe! and she was interested to learn about haggis….).

Michiko at start of class

Dango is quite sticky and interesting to work with; the rice flour is made into balls and then boiled and cooled in cold water.

Definitely better tasting with black sesame and sugar sprinkled on it, but alternatively it can be served as a savory with soy sauce/sake mix brushed on or dipped in.

The daifuku was a bit harder – we used two different techiques and my second one came out looking like a drunken volcano with the pineapple peeking out as you can see above. It’s quite sticky to work with, and this dough is microwaved twice before molding.

And the nerikiri was quite tricky – a real art form. When we made the leaves, we used two different colours of paste, yellow and red to represent autumn colours, and put a realistic notch on the bottom to represent the insects’ influence (a perfect weevil notch!). Ladybugs go on spring flowers, apparently and are very tricky as they are so small…

Interesting to see the difference between the pro and the amateur.

Michiko’s final product:

and my final tray: that volcano was supposed to be round LOL

We finished by learning how to properly make matcha tea (with a whisk to create foam) and all was packed up to go back out into the rain. Lots of fun! I am hoping Fugiya store in Vancouver carries most of the ingredients as I’d like to try some more. I suspect Debbie would be great at the nerikiri with her artistic talents – it truly is an art form.

Managed to miss my subway stop on the way home as well…. reversed and exited with a group of French folk who were looking for the Ginza line and were quite confused as you have to go above ground and walk a bit to find it. As I was going the same way we joined forces and had a nice exchange in both English and French walking between stations. There are a LOT of French tourists around, and lots of Aussies and Brits as well – some Americans, but fewer than I’d expected. Italians, Germans, Koreans and Canadians make up the next most common species I’ve encountered.

Headed for a lunch of Okonomiyaki near Asakusa, in a restaurant that was closed last year as it had no ac and it gets far too hot with the grills on – even today it was toasty, but really delicious. Finding sitting in the traditional Japanese position at a low table not so great with bad knees LOL, nor with self-service water to drink necessitating getting up intermittently! An Australian group next to me were lucky enough to land a bench so the daughter passed her parents’ food up to them… they were as creaky as me. A quick trip back to Kitchen town to pick up some small things was completed before it started to rain more heavily again so the hood went up and I scuttled for cover back to the hotel.

It’s lovely to see signs in the hot baths “please pick out leaves if you see them and assist insects in getting out of the water”. The heat is certainly appreciated for those aged joints…

Tomorrow morning will see a pack up and shift to another hotel in Shingawa, further south, and joining the cycle tour group. These first few days have flown by. Research shows there’s lots to do in Shingawa and look forward to exploring another new neighbourhood after dropping off the luggage which is expanding daily….

Still waking at 2 a.m., but at least eventually returning to sleep…

So, yes it does work boiling eggs in a kettle. Just in case you wondered. Good protein for breakfast; combined with yoghurt and fruit, a decent start out the door.

Fairly long commute to Shibuya, on the other side of Tokyo and involving an interesting walk after being spit out of the subway through alleys and paths (and some main roads) to the Tokyo Cooking Studio. Shibuya is a lovely district, quiet, tidy and green. Found my first daifuku at a 7/11 enroute and yes, Moira, the coffee is drinkable! Thanks for the tip, I’d never have tried it otherwise. They have machines that make lattes and their universality makes them valuable. Alas, no chestnut daifuku but… see later.

As I’d left extra time in case of getting lost I was able to explore the nearby park, and part of the University campus, being enjoyed by a few dogs and some civilians. An aggressive cyclist went through a red light and nearly took me out as I started to cross, wouldn’t that have been ironic. Note to self, look right for cyclists as well as cars before crossing….

The class comprised 5 Canadians and two Yanks, one of whom turned out to be a resident doing ER medicine in LA. She was travelling with her Chicago companion who’s a stage hand. There was a mother and daughter from Maniwaki, Québec, and another young couple from Kitchener. The Québecers were living in Tokyo on a work contract – husband at work, and the parents were on a two week visit. Sounds like a good company to work for, they have already spent two years in Australia but are looking forward to moving home with their young child at the end of this posting. We learned about ingredients for Ramen (which has elevated a lot since its’ invention – I learned from my brother that were devised by the Americans as instant noodles after WW2 to stave off starvation in the Japanese population) and put together a vegetarian version. It uses eggs for protein, and they are very neatly pierced with a tiny hole to keep the yolks soft and prevent cracking during boiling (coolest kitchen gadget ever does that), then marinated in soy sauce, mirin and spices. The gyoza was fun to put together; the wrappings were thicker than ones I’ve been using but learned some good techniques for making them pretty. After concoction was complete we sat down with yuzu sake, my new favourite drink!!!! and ate. Very filling, and finished off with black sesame ice cream (vanilla ice cream mixed with black tahini). Yummm. A new flavour for my ice cream cakes…

Yukari, our teacher, lived and worked as a chef after schooling in New Orleans, then a few years in San Francisco before returning to Japan.

Assiduously chopping the vegetables for the gyoza filling.

Working on the gyoza filling.

Finished gyoza before cooking. I got the job of inverting a panful onto a plate, but unfortunately it’s a video which won’t upload on this site. Came out well!

Finished Ramen. Delicious!

Group photo after class

After pictures we dispersed, but I chummed up with the Americans to visit Meiji temple, the youngest temple in Tokyo and next to the Olympic Park. A good hike there from our class site but needed after all the food!

More people than I’d seen yet making the pilgrimage to the temple; the forest and birds sounded subtropical on the approach walk. Still shorts and t-shirt weather, a little warmer than yesterday and more humid as rain is forecast this evening and tomorrow, the tail end of the Taiwan typhoon.

Shinto gate

Something was going on in the shrine as there were gongs ringing, but maybe it was the equivalent of church bells ringing on the hour? Hard to tell. Lots of devout attendees, and a long line up for Goshen (stamp to verify visit to the shrine).

After the temple we went our separate ways and I navigated back to Shibuya to visit a food store recommended by our teacher. Another long hike, with a short stop for coffee and then a couple of crossings at the famous Shibuya crossing as I got my directions wrong the first time. Almost getting the hang of the map app…. that cone isn’t always truthful, esp. in crossing pedestrian bridges and of course within areas with lots of skyscrapers. Perhaps it just thinks I need more exercise as it made me go up and down one pedestrian bridge twice before it settled on a direction… As in all large cities, people keep fit without a stairmaster just commuting on transit and walking around! The Shibuya crossing was fun, densely populated as forecast and the numbers buffed up by tourists taking selfies of themselves crossing…

The foodstore, Tokyu Food Show, was AMAZING. What a collection of culinary delights. Like a museum, I could spend days in there…. The first floor was made up of different sections of patisseries – managed to get away only with a chestnut daifaku, a croissant and a matcha entremet from Antonér. Good thing I’m going cycling… but it’s all research 🙂. The choices on display were absolutely stunning though, each section from a different patisserier and very different.

The basement floor was the ingredients/grocery section and included some rare mushrooms at about $200/lb. as well as truffles. And about everything else you could think of, from all over the world. Banana powder from Ecuador. Shredded chili from India. Every type of seaweed you could imagine. And on and on. Fascinating, and a lot of fun to browse! Good thing I haven’t much room left in the suitcase. Did manage to find the yuzu chili in the spice section… and silver leaf for cake and chocolate decorating to complement my gold leaf.

Anténor pastry below – the packing of the pastries for takeout is very precise, always accompanied by a mini ice bag, the pastry packed tight with cardboard around to prevent movement, and instructions given of expiry date and the amount of time it can be out and about before storage in the fridge. The white “do not eat” strip was a frozen strip just for the cream… It made an excellent dinner. 9.0/10. I docked half a point as the layers weren’t perfectly even and another .5 for the cream piping which was a bit rough, but the taste was amazing.

There is a statue of Hachiko, the faithful Akita dog that spurred the movie “Hachi – a dog’s tale” outside the Shibuya station. Yukari was telling us that it was covered with a bag last night for Hallowe’en and a strong police presence was in Shibuya crossing, which tends apparently to get “interesting” during festivals. But she also noted that it was the first time the statue had been covered, and that the crossing is only policed heavily during “foreign” celebrations which she felt was a demonstration of the government’s conservatism and fear of foreign celebrations as there are much bigger crowds and rowdy behaviour for Japanese festivals. Interesting.

After tearing myself away from there it was time to hop on the Ginza line, which took a bit of finding, and happily no changes going home from the start of the line to the second last stop on the other end. People watching on trains is fun – amazing how some can sleep standing up. Once back, a session in the hotel communal hot bath helped the weary bones. The hip and knee are not so happy at all this city walking.

Today’s highlight – Tokyu Food Show tied with the cooking class which was a blast!

Bumpy ride across the Pacific even causing the hot drinks to be deleted from breakfast (no coffee!!!). Didn’t get much sleep but at least it was comfortable & watched several movies on the way over (some very unusual ones – anyone seen “Inside”?)

We got a fast pass through immigration at Narita thanks to business class but the lines in general weren’t nearly as long as last year, during the summer. Grabbed the luggage and got through quickly and onto the Kesei Skyliner with a prepaid ticket. Moment of panic as I couldn’t initially connect to the internet to get the QR voucher code but remembered my instructions “restart if it doesn’t work properly” and then on restarting the esim kicked in, and I was able to get my ticket. Lots of tourists but again, no huge lineups at the ticket counters like last year, surprisingly. A hop to the Ginza metro line (of course there were stairs to drag the case down!) and two stops from Ueno got me to the hotel and amazingly I got out at the right exit. Glad to see a bed at that point but struggled for a couple of hours to stay awake to dull the upcoming jetlag – went for a short walk and dive into the 7/11 across the street in search of chestnut Moshi (unsuccessful) but finally gave up at 8 p.m. and was out like a light… 3 a.m. our time.

The night was punctuated by a brief wakening at 2 a.m. Japan time but happily got back to sleep within an hour and resurfaced at 6 a.m., good omen for jetlag to disappear quickly…breakfast of cold croissant from a Ueno french bakery store (7/10) and coffee then headed out walking to Sensoji temple for a quick recce. Always a lovely place to walk around, and already accumulating tourists. It’s shorts and T-shirt weather here, perfect temps and not too muggy outside of the train stations. After downing a calorific local sweet bun from a vendor headed by metro to Ueno Park which was amazing – full of walks, and birds singing despite being in the centre of a huge metropolis (unfortunately this website won’t support videos).

Senso-ji temple and touristic approach

Ueno Park

Tooled around the Tokyo National Museum for a couple of hours, an amazing collection of artifacts, archaeology and art. Like many museums, one doesn’t do it justice in part of a day… the “Hello Kitty” special exhibit in a different wing was getting a lot of visitors LOL. Getting into the museum was a bonus, as I’d read that it was closed and under renovation until 2025, but apparently not?

Then off for some patisserie and chocolate research, with a quick stop for lunch at T’s Tantan Vegetarian Ramen restaurant which I amazingly found within Tokyo Station with the help of the information booth. It provided a lovely yuzu ramen that fuelled me to the Patisserie Sudahuru Aoki in Marinouchi and the apple store to get a charge cord connection for my laptop (had forgotten Japan didn’t accept three prong cords despite being told that specifically before I left… sigh). Now have a travel kit charger that will work anywhere in the world 🤦‍♀️.

I’d been to Sudahuru Aoki last year, and still remembered the amazing pastries. It is obviously chestnut season as there were all kinds of “marron” flavoured confections, pastries and biscuits. Hard to choose, but in the interests of research I stuck to the entremets and a few chocolate bonbons.

The first one I tried tonight, the pear caramel, was exquisite – real pear with jaconde sponge, custard mousse and a caramelized glaze…. amazing. Dunno how they managed to carmalize the glaze without destroying its’ sheen… but a great trick, and one to practice. Definitely a 10/10. The custard and the jaconde were fabulous.

Then a quick trip around the corner to suss out the location of the hotel I booked for the last night in Tokyo, and a hop back onto the metro to drop off the pastries to the newly replaced fridge in the room (didn’t work when I arrived so wondering when the milk will go bad… esp as the repair person left it out when he swapped out the fridge…).

After a quick cup of matcha it was out the door again to wander down the Kappabashi kitchen street – always fun. Looking for bookmarks of fake food, and a wooden cup but couldn’t find the right fake food store – an excuse to return! Grocery shopping at the Life supermarket (which I’d intended to do this a.m. on the way back from Senso-ji but was surprised to find it didn’t open until 10:30!) yielded an interesting seaweed/rice/tofu/salmon “ball” and some excellent instant miso soup for dinner. It’s hard to shop in Japan as a vegetarian as pork and chicken seem to appear in everything; I found the timekettle T1 translator quite useful on the whole for translating the ingredients but giggled at some of the translations of the fronts of the packages which were mostly fairly nonsensical. It was helpful though, talking to the friendly security guard on the second floor when I had to retrieve it from having left it at the cash register… finding those quite confusing, as the input for coins and bills is different in every machine with interactive screens which also change. Freely admit I’m not the most adept at tech… The guard thought it was a miniature phone, so we had a chat with it translating, to show him, and it seemed to work pretty well.

And so the first day is done. Tomorrow’s menu at the Tokyo Cooking School looks amazing – there are apparently 6 of us in this class. Should be an adventure just getting there, and fun to see a different part of the city.

Tomorrow’s menu:

– Vegetarian ramen with seasonal vegetables and ramen eggs

– Vegetarian gyoza with shiso, lotus roots, carrots, mushrooms, nappa cabbage 

– Black sesame ice cream and seasonal fruits

– Yuzu sake

Today’s highlight: the little kids in the Metro in school uniform with hats and big backpacks.

After a mad scramble the packing is done, the garden is put to rest, and hopefully soon so will I!

Just setting up the blog to make sure it’s working before I head out. I’ve marked out the patisseries and chocolatiers I’m going to visit in Tokyo – there are some amazing pastry chefs there. Research! And guilt free given the upcoming ride.

More soon…