Our travel day to Tokyo went smoothly enough. Captain Kumamon kept an eye on the speed app on Ian’s phone, but we were unable to get near Pete and Ilze’s Italian record. We enjoyed a relaxing 3 hour journey; less fun was the hectic transfer from Shinkansen to subway at Tokyo Central. We’re staying in a 9th floor shoebox in Nishishinjuku, in a small quiet street not dissimilar to the one in Osaka. Seeing how tiny this place is, we realise we were lucky to have a relatively large space in Osaka. Here our bed is jammed up against 3 walls. There is no table. The bathroom and toilet are small, and everything runs off a narrow hallway which only copes with one person at a time. The kitchen has a few more utensils, and mercifully the walls are not plastered with instructions. We feel a bit like we’re camping.
Today’s itinerary said “flaneuring” (wandering with no particular aim in mind), but in reality it was a 6 hour metrogaine, with various checkpoints to be achieved. Like many a rogaine team before us, we spent a lot of time planning the route, then as soon as the “go” was given, we made an on the spot decision to reverse the whole thing, add in a new control, and leave off another one. Was it the right decision? Who knows.
Control 1 – Shinjuku Central Park. Nothing of note here; a quiet, pleasant English-style park with families out for a morning stroll or play. We saw our first Japanese turtles.
Control 2 – Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. More interesting than it sounds; it has a free observation deck on the 45th floor, which was a great way to orientate ourselves. We could see the Skytree and other notable buildings; we could pick out the huge green park to the south and the National Stadium; we could see the extent of Tokyo’s sprawl. The only thing we couldn’t see was Mt Fuji, as it was dull and cloudy. Bonus points: a grand piano has been donated, and it sits in the centre of the floor. Anyone is invited to play it, and there was a queue of about half a dozen pianists. This was not your “chopsticks” – everyone who sat down to play, was remarkably good. We were treated to a free piano concert as well as a free view.
Control 3 – under the rules, travel by subway was allowed. We boarded the train to Harajuku Station, a little to the south. Apparently so did everyone else; getting out of the station was quite challenging. From there we were headed to Yoyogi Park, the massive green space we’d seen from above. We made a navigational error by not realising that Yoyogi is separated from the Meiji Shrine park by a high fence (unmapped). Yoyogi was another European style park, and being Sunday, was full of picnickers and strollers. We wandered around for a while but decided there was nothing to see that we couldn’t see at any large city park.
Control 4 – we somehow found ourselves in the middle of Moomba. At least that’s what it looked like – lots of food stalls and some low-key entertainment, with lots of people milling around. We had a quick look and moved on.
Control 5 – backtracking, we joined the throngs of tourists heading to the famous Takeshita Street in Harajuku. This is where you supposedly go to see all sorts of weird and wonderful fashions on parade. At the top of the street, all you can see are wall to wall people. You take a deep breath, dive in, and jostle your way along the road, catching glimpses of what made this area Insta-famous. Ironically, the tourists have driven out the real Harajuku Girls and Boys, although the crepes, cat cafes, candy floss, and strange mix of cute pink fashion and Halloween goth, can all still be seen. Like the Vortex of Doom, Takeshita Street spits you out at the other end, and you shake your head, wondering what that was all about.
Control 6 – the crowds didn’t let up; it seems like every one of Tokyo’s 14 million people was out Sunday shopping. We turned down a few back streets and wound up in Ometosando, the adjacent area to Harajuku, and thankfully much more tranquil, although there were still queues outside the more popular eating places. Our goal was to find the gluten free RiceHack Bakery, which we duly did. We ordered a pizza which was nice, and Ian has some bread and muffins for tomorrow’s lunch, so it was a good find, although very expensive. We enjoyed the calm here for a while, before re-entering the maelstrom.
Control 7 – continuing south, we were headed for the famous Shibuya Scramble crossing. This is the road crossing that you always see in photos of Tokyo; the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing can see up to 3000 people per minute heading every which way. Watching from above, it is like a strange form of line dance, as everyone sets off from their respective corners, heads towards each other, intermingles for a few seconds, and moves on. It’s all pretty orderly, and despite my vestibular issues, I didn’t find it too difficult to manage, once we’d planned our direction of travel, and agreed on a meetup point in case we lost each other during the process!
Control 8 – having had more than enough of tourist hordes, we dived underground into Shibuya Station, and took the subway north again. Our next stop was the National Stadium, which was home to both the 1964 an the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. I remembered watching those last Games on TV – deferred for a year due to covid, and no spectators in the arenas, they were a symbol of how disrupted our lives had become. Now just two years later, we’re all back to “normal”, happily(?) rubbing shoulders with thousands of strangers, mostly unmasked (although Japan still has quite a high level of mask wearing, it’s not compulsory and there is no pressure to do so).
On the stadium walls there are plaques listing the 2020 Medallists, and we played “spot the Aussie”. We found the Olympic Rings, and the cauldron for 1964. Walking back to the station later, I found the 1964 Gold Medallists’ names etched into a different wall, notably spotting “Fraser, D” and “Cuthbert, B”. Two things struck me – firstly, the sports have changed somewhat in the almost 60 years; secondly, in 1964, the male medallists outnumbered the female medallists by about 5 to 1.
Control 9 – this was the one we ran out of time for; the National Garden. We’d failed to note its 4pm closure time, so it had to be omitted. Instead we called it a day and headed for home, with Ian detouring to Ginza to check the Lego stores there (he found them disappointing).
Did we win? Well I had a chocolate éclair for dessert; you be the judge!
dipidydoo 