A very rainy day but it didn't slow us down! After a good breakfast at the Excelsior Caffe…wonderful Matcha Latte! We headed to Meiji Shrine by taking the subway to the Meiji stop. Coming up out of the subway, the first thing we spotted was the Olympic Stadium…a fixture in our old neighborhood. We headed in the shrine after looking all around from the overhead crosswalk.
Meiji Shrine is an oasis of green and calm in the midst of this incredibly bustling city. The peacefulness is so tangible, it feels like a blanket swaddling you. You enter through the enormous Tori gate and stroll down a wide path surrounded by woods. You pass barrels of wine and sake that have been blessed. There are side paths leading into the woods and ancillary gardens. Eventually you come to the shrine itself, a lovely, simple temple dedicated to the first Meiji emperor and his empress.
We walked around enjoying the sights and sensations of the shrine and then headed back out with a brief stop at the gift shop.
Next stop lunch on Omote-Sando…the street where we lived. We chose a crowded Kyushu-style Ramen shop and wow did we choose well…it was fantastic! You pick the broth base that you want and then the toppings for the noodles. It was the best noodle bowl I've had and really reasonably priced…ramen and beer for under 1000 yen which is about $10. This was the perfect meal for a cold rainy day.
Time to walk off the carbs, so we headed down Omote-Sando, stopping to take a photo at the Green Fantasia, our first apartment in Tokyo. This street has gone upscale since we lived here…lots of designer stores (Nike, Ralph Lauren, even Nespresso…where we got a free coffe fix!). Fortunately two of our favorite stores were still there: oriental Bazaar and Kiddy Land! Oriental Bazaar was closed on that day but KiddyLand was hopping. After getting my picture taken out front (weird, but I got tears in my eyes from the memories), we dove in. I never made it off the first floor…it was just like I remember, full of wonderful cute toys and collectibles. Others made it to the other floors and attested to its awesomeness. We looked for our second apartment, the Belaire Gardens, but it had recently been torn down and was a construction site.
After walking the entire street we hopped the subway to the Azabu Juban, a cute shopping street that was near our third and last apartment. The area had also gone upscale, but it was still fun to walk and reminisce. We found a lovely shop selling clothing and fabric made items and did a little shopping.
Then it was time to return to the hotel and freshen up for cocktails at the Hotel Okura and a Shabu Shabu dinner with our long lost cousin (on our fathers side).
Arriving at the Okura was like taking a step back in time. The hotel has been lovingly preserved and the lobby looked nearly identical to what it did when we lived there for 3 months in 1966. While we were looking around, a very nice gentleman who worked there started talking to us and explained some of the changes that had been made (my coffee shop where I had my cinnamon toast every day after school was gone!) when we explained our affectionate and history of the place he went and brought us commemorative booklets. So nice of him! We had cocktails in the Orchid lounge and met up with our cousin, John, who we hadn't seen in about 40 years.
We moved onto Kisoji, a Shabu Shabu restaurant in the Shimbashi area where Johns wife met us. It was a great meal….quite a production. First the large iron pots filled with water are put on the table top burners to boil. Then the meat course is first…paper thin slices of beef that you wave briefly through the broth to cook. There are two different sauces, one was sesame based, tasting of tahini, and the other a ponzu sauce. After the meat course come vegetables: mushrooms, bean sprouts, cabbage and other greens plus rice noodles. These are also cooked in the broth that has now been flavored by the beef that was cooked in it earlier. Really a wonderful experience. We sat on the floor in our stocking feet, served by women in kimonos, drinking sake and beer.
After dinner and saying farewell to John and his wife, we returned to our neighborhood. The Broderick's and Bill (aka the partyers) went on in search of bars while Catherine, Joe and Alise went back to the hotel. We found a neat little bar, Bar Gatsby, that was up a flight a stairs. It was tiny and kind of like a little club. Lovely paintings on the wall and a bar that probably seated 20 at most. We sampled the Japanese whiskey and beer, accompanied by wasabi flavored osembei, the rice crackers and dried banana chips. They waved the cover charge…must have been Dave's charm. After walking the streets of Akasaka a bit more we headed back to the hotel.
The area of Akasaka that we wondered is filled with bars, small restaurants, karaoke places and some “relaxation” centers for tired business men. It isn't shady…really a hopping and fun warren of small streets that we loved exploring.
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