Shinjuku and Shibuya – Tokyo, Japan – Scott and Sophie Love to Travel

37 million people live in the Tokyo metropolitan area! The west side of Tokyo is the more modern side with lots of shopping, restaurants, night life, etc. Our hotel is on this side, so we decided to spend our first full day walking around the neighborhoods of Shibuya and Shinjuku. We will explore the more historic east side tomorrow.

Our first stop was the department store Isetan – a ten story tall behemoth that harkens to the good old days of department stores. The amazing thing here, though, is that it was very busy on a Thursday morning! We headed to the basement level where there were the most impressive food counters (called depachika) I’ve ever seen. You can buy everything from Russian caviar to French chocolates (many famous brands represented) to Iberico ham to Japanese sweets and spirits to exotic vegetables, meats and prepared meals. It was hopping and there must have been hundreds of staff working at all the various counters. It was the same on the perfume and beauty floors. After years of dwindling department store traffic in the US, it blew me away to see how vibrant department store commerce was still here. Maybe having 37 million people living here has something to do with that.

Our next stop was the Meiji Jingu shrine, one of the grandest shrines in Tokyo. It was built in a large forested park to commemorate Emperor Meiji (1852-1912) and his wife Empress Shoken (1850-1914) who helped open up Japan to the West, embracing Western culture, technology and relationships. The weather was sunny and around 50 degrees, so we enjoyed walking around the gardens and temple. As tradition dictates, we wrote our wishes on a little note and put them in an envelope with a donation for the Shinto monks to help make our wishes come true.

Casks of sake wrapped in rope.

Traditionally dressed women.

We headed down Omotesandō street in Shibuya next. This is like the Champs-Élysées of Tokyo with one famous brand after another. Louis Vuitton was featuring a collaboration with artist Yayoi Kusama in their store. She is famous for her colorful polka dot artwork. Audrey brought us to one of her exhibitions in New York many years ago, and we’ve enjoyed her work ever since.

We ate lunch at a recommended restaurant called Maisen. They are famous for their breaded pork cutlets (tonkatsu). I have to say I never ate such a tasty piece of pork. The breading was sweet and so crispy, while the meat was chewy and rich. Sophie said the miso soup served on the side was the best she had ever had as well. Sophie was also happy she successfully used her chopsticks without flinging fried meat across the restaurant – which had been a recurring nightmare she was having before our trip.

Obviously, with so many inhabitants, there are people bustling about everywhere you turn. We found the fashion very interesting – lots of chunky platform shoes, pleated skirts, colorful hair, trendy jackets, etc. Business men still wear suits, blue collar folk seem to have specific uniforms based on their trade. I noticed a lot of safety workers. In front of every parking garage ramp there were multiple uniformed people making sure cars didn’t drive in front of pedestrians. Construction sites had monitors on each corner making sure it was safe for pedestrians. Lots of police, traffic controls, firemen, etc. around. And everyone obeyed all the traffic signals including pedestrians – even if there were no cars around. This focus on safety meant moms rode bikes with their babies and toddlers attached – and amazingly, little kids walked to school alone. Even in the middle of the busiest intersections, you’d see a six year old kid all alone waiting for a light to cross the street. It was very cute and pretty astonishing when you think about it.

For supper, we had booked a food tour (actually a Christmas gift from Audrey – thanks, Audrey). It was just Sophie and I in the tour, so we got the guide all to ourselves. He was very nice and answered our many questions about what it’s like to live in Japan. Our first stop was a fancy sushi restaurant where we watched the sushi chef prepare our sushi. We each got a tuna sushi platter with cuts from different parts of the fish prepared in different ways. It was the best sushi we had ever had, and was filling. Unfortunately, our second stop was a Japanese grill where we had another full meal waiting for us. At this restaurant, we got to try A5 Saroma Wagyu beef. This is the highest grade, most famous beef in Japan if not the world. It was about equal parts fat to meat and completely marbled throughout. It was very tender and buttery tasting. I hate to admit, though, I prefer a nice traditional steak on the grill at home. Our final stop on the tour was a bar and dessert place called Mysterious. It was a dark place in a basement where we had to take off our shoes at the entrance, and we sat in our own “cage” on the floor Japanese style. We had some interesting cocktails and ice cream – probably not typically Japanese.

The food tour was in the Shinjuku neighborhood close to our hotel. There were thousands of restaurants, bars, clubs, casinos and more down a myriad of streets and alleys. One tiny alley called yokochō had 60 individual restaurants all serving yakitori (grilled meat on skewers). Lots of flashy signs, animated figures, k-pop ads and commotion. Our guide said people often stayed up until 4AM or later here at clubs and karaoke joints waiting for the first trains to start back up.