The Jukebox Clan Does Japan

[Deno]

Thanks @jukebox333 Great Trip Report, with a lot of useful information. We are heading there in August, so your info is very helpful.

 

[rbjhan]

The plan is to try it somewhere the table can share a plate, not where it's placed in front of one of us and it's that soul's task to make it vanish

I'm not expecting to like it, but have got myself in a headspace where I'm willing to try it

I had it in Matsumoto and Kumamoto.....meh really not my thing. I can eat the meat but holy cow the fat was just so....off putting
Besides, you see why it's only popular in those places? Hmmm, I have a theory.....

 

[elanshin]

Ha ha be careful about Basashi 馬刺し..... it's not everyone's cup of tea, certainly not mine
*And you know I eat almost everything!

@jukebox333 the best way i can say is that it's up to how its prepared. Overall if its done well you wouldn't even realise its horse. Done poorly and you're wondering why you didn't go have beef.

 

[drron]

Not only in Japan but ate it in Iceland as well. I don't mind it at all but nothing special.

 

[jukebox333]

Sunday was to be South West Tokyo, starting with Teamlabs Borderless. The kids had pushed this as a must do, as well as Teamlabs Planets. I was a little sceptical about doing both so close to each other, but there was no clear favourite in the reviews – different people got different things out of each.

I booked the 0900 slot, wanting to be there early, use the dead time 0700 – 0900 for travel, and hopefully beat the crazy crowds. It was a smart move. By the time 1000 rolled around, corridors we’d had to ourselves were filled with screaming kids unleashed by don’t-give-a-damn parents, and obnoxious *loud* Westerners, intent on telling everyone within earshot their interpretation of the works.






I have to say ¾ of the installations are amazing – you walk into rooms and lose all sense of balance, gravity, height, direction in some cases. Gradually, that feeling is taken over by immersion into the art. Photographs don’t do it justice – I can’t recommend it enough.

 

[jukebox333]

We came out, and what had been a cold, grey day was now sunny… and of course we’d pencilled in a group laundry session. So the two young kids went off to Shibuya and around and about, while Wendy and I schlepped down to Ginza with a suitcase of dirty clothes. With five people in tow, it quickly adds up. Again in hindsight, perhaps we should have washed a day earlier when it was wet.

I did manage to revisit Sakura-Dori Street outside the hotel, and the blossom there in full sunlight were just heavenly.

 

[Pushka]

Sunday was to be South West Tokyo, starting with Teamlabs Borderless. The kids had pushed this as a must do, as well as Teamlabs Planets. I was a little sceptical about doing both so close to each other, but there was no clear favourite in the reviews – different people got different things out of each.

I booked the 0900 slot, wanting to be there early, use the dead time 0700 – 0900 for travel, and hopefully beat the crazy crowds. It was a smart move. By the time 1000 rolled around, corridors we’d had to ourselves were filled with screaming kids unleashed by don’t-give-a-damn parents, and obnoxious *loud* Westerners, intent on telling everyone within earshot their interpretation of the works.

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I have to say ¾ of the installations are amazing – you walk into rooms and lose all sense of balance, gravity, height, direction in some cases. Gradually, that feeling is taken over by immersion into the art. Photographs don’t do it justice – I can’t recommend it enough.

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Excellent. We are going there too.

 

[jukebox333]

Washing took about three hours, and I again offered Levon another night with his old man, which he accepted with a little trepidation. The temp had dropped in the afternoon, and the wind was picking up. It was about 5C but felt much worse. We headed for the Shibuya crossing, then Tower Records Shibuya, and finally another Instagram hotspot at Shibuya’s Sakura-dori Street.


















The plan after that was to grab a feed around Meguro River and look at the illuminated blossoms there, but it was bitterly cold, so after our meal we cut and run back to the hotel to warm ourselves up and get ready for an early start the next day.

 

[jukebox333]

Next up: Mt Fuji.

I'd done the Hakone Freepass thing on my 2008 visit, and not seen Fuji, so my eldest convinced me that seeing Fuji from the Five Lakes area might be a better way to do things. That needs a car, and my first thought was to hire a van and driver for the day.

When I researched this, it costs around $800, which is not outrageous for a 12 hr day, but all the van-and-a-man places seem to have a fixed itinerary; you get taken to certain spots, for certain amounts of time, and have zero flexibility. That's not me.

So I checked on car (van) rentals, and it was pretty affordable. There was a Nissan car rental office at the Nihonbashi entrance to Tokyo station, so we could pick up there dramas first thing in the morning. I decide we'd make it an overnight trip, to give us time to see Fuji in the afternoon of Day 1 and the morning of Day 2.

I also became a compulsive watcher of live webcams around Fuji, to figure out where the best in places to be for photographs are. Turns out it's on the East side in the morning, the West in the afternoon.

Looking at accommodation, there are a lot of places to stay around Kawaguchiko, but I cast my net a little wider, and found The Mount Shoji Hotel, out on Lake Shoji. This place has rooms with the most gorgeous view, and indeed one of the live cams is right near it, so you can see exactly what you are getting:

I kept a close eye on when their bookings opened, and grabbed three Fuji facing rooms the day they went live. They were a mix of Japanese and Western style, but the main thing was they all had views.

Knowing I'd be bringing the van back in to central Tokyo, I decided on a Mon-Tue rental, as (hopefully) the traffic would be lighter on a Tuesday.

That cast the die for timing.

As the date got closer, the Central Tokyo Nissan office booking did not open bookings for April. No idea why, and when I emailed them, I didn't get any response beyond "Please wait". The booking spanned two different months, and I started getting nervous, knowing I needed a van to fit us all in.

Time for plan B.

I checked the other Nissan offices, and saw the Hachioji office had van availability. This was far on the west side of Tokyo, which meant less city driving, and so we could subway out there, and pick up the car at 8am, but be almost a third of the way to Fuji, so that made a lot of sense.

I locked in the van booking, and we were set.

It is quite cruel watch Fuji weather. There are days it looks like a postcard, other days a grey fog covers everything.

Last week, it became clear we were rather unlikely to get good weather.

I had one "floating" day in Tokyo Thursday of this week, so made a prcautionary car booking for that day, just in case the weather didn't co-operate but Thursday looked good - we could do the main sights in a single day if push came to shove...

But it wasn't to be. Leaving Tokyo we had solid overcast. The temperature was dropping, and Oliver came back with a weather report forcasting snow for the evening.

Snow?????????

 

[jukebox333]

Sooooo... my Really Clever Plan™ was to head to Chureito Pagoda mid morning of Day 1 if we got there before the crowds and the sun had shifted, the across to Kogamasao Memorial Park, then Oishi Park, then loop down to Lake Tanuki, before ending up at the hotel. Day 2 we would get up early, grab sunrise photos from the view in front of the Lake, Then tackle Chureito again before it got too crowded, and then head for Oshino Hakkai. Most of these places have live cams, so the plan had been to monitor those for how the light looked, and if some places got clouded in, move to others.

In the end, they were **all** clouded in.

Well, snowed in, actually.

Cutting our losses, we headed for Shiraito Falls, and then to the hotel.






The view is stunning, and would be more so if it were clear.

But this place is old, and tired... there's literally a trickle of hot water from the taps, and no towels are provided.

It's also one of the more expensive places - because of location.

But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Because sometimes, there's magic in the air...

 

[craven morehead]

Well, here we are live from Tokyo!

The great news is, that HKG transfer was seamless. We got away from PER on time, and into HKG on schedule. After the long walk to the transfer area and back to gate 63, I was met by my son and his girlfriend, who had navigated safely from BNE.

Both Cathay flights were on the very good side of acceptable for Y - one thing that stood out was the cabin crew acknowledging my status by greeting me as I took my seat, and calling me by name throughout the flight. It's stupidly petty, and changes nothing, but it does feel nice.

We flew over Taipei en-route - I worked there for 2 years, so that was a nice touch - and we did manage a glimpse of Fuji poking out from above the clouds. Hopefully it won't be our only view...

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Narita was actually stress free. Our gate was close to the terminal, and even though we stopped just past the airbridge for three of five of us to empty bladders (!), we were only on the third row of the chicane leading to the QR code reading stations. Lots of help for anyone needing it at these counters, and we were clear of airside in about 40 mins. We grabbed NEX tickets (also fuss free - I'd watched YouTube videos so knew exactly what to do) and we were on our way into Tokyo city less than 90 mins after landing.

Signing on

 

[rbjhan]

a compulsive watcher of live webcams

OMG are you me???