It's weird, in some ways we haven't done the stereotypical Japanese tourist things during this trip, other than maybe go to a karaoke bar the first couple nights in Kyoto (which seem like a lifetime ago). But we haven't done any costuming, or gone to a sumo fight, or an arcade bar or those types of things. Maybe we should do a bit more, and its not like we haven't done a lot in terms of enjoying the nightlife of these various places, but today in Shinjuku was the day to do most of that.
We spent a lot of the day just walking around Shinjuku, particularly the more commercial focused area near the Shinjuku Station. There is one straight in front of it with giant comic book signs and neon and arcades and furry animals and all the rest (including what seemed to be a fairly sizable red light area for a couple blocks). We made tentative plans to come back in the night if time persists, to see what that is like, but even in the day it is overwhelming. Sure, a lot of it is kitchy nonsense, or aimed at people very much not us, but it still is cool to see in that scale.
A few blocks further stand a line of upmarket stores, such as Armani and Louis Vitton, and the giant Isetan shopping mall, an 8-story behemoth, with a beautiful food hall underneath. The food hall underneath was where we had lunch. The pricing here is not cheap necessarily, but generally you can eat a very filling lunch, like we did, for about $20 along with sampling different things. I got a few yakitori sticks, a cold wagyu roast beef salad (excellent) a set of various gyoza and dumplings. All in all a very satisfying lunch.
The only real tourist site of the day was next up, the Meiji Jingo shrine, taking up half of Yoyogi Park, about 20 minute walk south of Shinjuku. The area that this temple takes up is quite large, but the grounds itself dedicated to the place as a whole are quite a bit larger, and quite serene. The entry way past a giant gate, are rows of tree-lined walkways, with giant cedars on each side. You truly feel weird thinking this is in reality spitting distance away from the streets and bustle of Shinjuku.
The main shrine is in honor to Emperor Meiji, who restored the primacy of the Emperor and brought the seat of power in Japan back to Tokyo. The main buildings are similar to what I've come to expect, but had a couple unique features which I liked. First was two giant walls of barrels, one being woven barrels of sake with really colorful weaving work, and the other being barrels of French wine, tying to Emperor Meiji bringing in French winemakers for the Japanese to learn from them. The other unique big was the large gardens just south of the main temple, with ponds, gazebos, lakes and lilypads. The only disappointment there being that the iris garden was being planted and cultivated for next year, so we missed out on that bit completely.
From there we headed back to Shinjuku to stroll around for a bit, including walking through the Golden Gai area, which is a little cordoned off 3x3 block of small alleyways with a ton of bars and tiny restaurant stands. This place is far better to come at night, so we got a sense of what it was and made a decision to come back at night, again time permitting our ability to do so, what with wanting to go back to Bar Trench and hit up one last night club as a group. Today was a bit of a lazy day, some of that is just natural tiredness at this point, and also our laziest start (left the AirBNB at 10:45), but also intentionally leaving some things for a future Japan trip.
Our last dinner was maybe our best, or at least the most anticipated. It was the one splurgy sushi omakase we had during the time in Japan, at a place called Sushi M, and it was fantastic. The place has a cool, dark set-up with spotlights positioned at each of the 12 seats that are there at the sushi bar. Behind is one sushi master who preps all the nigiri and rolls, and other waiters who are taking care of the service. Everything was perfectly done, from the sake pairing to even all the non sushi. As with Lurra and Den, I'll cover the meal in a separate post.
Dinner took about 2hrs, but it was still about 9pm, so we ventured back to the Golden Gai district which was buzzing. It is a little corner of Shinjuku, but not the glitz and kitsch, but instead these little alleys with dozens of bars, each that can accomodate maybe 10 people. Most were already full, we went to one called Bay Window that was a whiskey bar, for a whiskey sampler, including one's from "Inchiro's Distillery", which we were sad to learn is not Ichiro Suzuki. After we walked around the Golden Gai some more - it was definitely tourist heavy, though the bartender in teh whiskey spot told us if anything it becomes more Japanese later in teh day.
From there we headed over to Shibuya one last time, first to Bar Trench for some cocktails, where we met a bartender who happened to live in NYC for 12 years, and even was a bartender at a speakeasy in Manhattan I've frequented. The drinks again were excellent, and all in all not too expensive, most being about $12-15. Overall alcohol, with the exception of some of the mroe fancy whiskeys, is not so expensive in Japan, even compared to say Korea where their versions of Bar Trench had cocktails clsoer to the $18-20 range.
We ended the night late, not a surprise as it was our last night as a group before I had to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow afternoon. We ewnt to Mitsuki first, which is a I would say more gritty of DJ Oath Bar, though the same setup. A bar backing an small space with the DJ in the front - this one was overall darker, but had nice smoke machines and easily the best AC I've seen in a club of this type. It's hard to rate either place really because while they were semi-crowded, the atmosphere would've been better on the weekend. Of course, maybe we don't get in on the weekend. Such is life as a tourist.
Day 14: Trading the Sun for the Swamp
The last day in Japan. Second straight year doing a mostly northern Asia country, but adding the Southeast to the end of it. Last year I probably was way too quick on the Korea half. Granted part of that was due to losing two days due to a typhoon delaying the start of my trip. This year I chopped off a day in southeast asia, and left earlier for Japan. I'm leaving Japan ultimately knowing that I'm leaving a lot on the table to do on a further trip, whether it is Hokkaido (the north island), any of the further out islands, Hiroshima, many other places. Still it was a good quality trip.
We woke up late, with my friends leaving for Osaka on the 11am Shinkansen. That is when we would part. I've done Osaka, and it was the first place I did in Japan last time when I still had maximum energy, so in my view, I saw what I needed. I know it is known as the unofficial food capital of Japan, but thought to let them enjoy while I skip down to Ho Chi Minh City.
I had about three hours to kill before the very affordable "Airport Limousine" bus that would take me from our hotel to Haneda. This gave me enough time to do one last bit of tourism, walk around Shinjuku a bit, and then have a splurgy Yakiniku lunch. The first bit was impromptu. The giant Tokyo Metropolitan Government building is a block south of our hotel. It is a massive building, 60 stories high, and it has a free observation deck. This is very different than the observation deck at the Tokyo Skytree - which I did on my prior Japan trip. That was certainly not free (by memory $30-40?), and had a super long queue. This one had no queue. Admittedly it's not as high up, but it is still taller than most buildings around it and gives a view good enough that if it is clear, cloudless day, you can see Mt. Fuji.
It was not a clear, cloudless day, so no Mt. Fuji view. It was still a pretty clear day, so you did get a good view of just the giantness of Tokyo - buildings and structures and life in every direction. You get nice views of the business of Shinjuku, and further out can see some of the key sights - such as the Tokyo Skytree, but overall it was just a great time waste and a great way to get a proper idea of how large and dense Tokyo is.
Lunch was at Mokkasan, which is a yakiniku buffet style set-up. I was a bit lucky to get a table withouth making a booking. How it works is you get 90 min to eat as much as you want for a set price, with the price corresponding to the grade of meat you get. The highest option is with kobe beef, which was around $350. I clearly did not pick this option, picking the second lowest, which was about $90, but did still feature wagyu. It's all you can eat of various cuts of the wagyu, and also as much as you want from a selection of innards (stomach, intestine, liver), seafood, pork, and vegetables. My only real complain isn't even a fair one, in that it seemed like they gave portions with each order of the same amount regardless of me being one person and not two or four.
For what effectively was my last thing in Japan, it was a good way to go out. It was also a bit nostalgic. I had this variation of meal, granted generally at cheaper versions, a lot in 2013 when I came to Japan. It was my go to, including going multiple times to various Gyu-Kakus, which I don't think were in the US yet at the time. My meals generally were that or sushi, and when it was sushi it was almost always conveyor belt sushi. I'll say this, the conveyor belt sushi, if you do some homework and find ones that are generally well regarded, is as efficient and cost effective today as it was ten years ago.
The airport limousine bus took me to Haneda efficiently enough that was able to grab about 40 minutes in teh ANA lounge, which was a bit disappointing. It was huge, had good views of the tarmac, and cold sake, but the food options were quite middling. Anyway, after the yakiniku, I was too full to eat much anyway. Plus, though I didn't know it at the time, the food on the actual ANA flight would redeem the lounge. The main dish which a chicken teriyaki over rice with steamed vegetables, which was tasty but nothing spectacular. It was the sides that were great, a light salad with ginger miso dressing, a macaroni salad with crab (real, as far as I can tell), and then edamame with a couple pieces of a sushi roll. Along with of course sake.
Soon enough we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, and the first thing I did was check the weather app. Googling weather is useless since it just predicts there will be thunderstorms all the time. In my trip last year, that was the forecast at all times and other than maybe 2-3 30min periods of a lot of rain there was nothing sustained. (I'm writing this the next day, and it was supposed to rain most of the day and didn't at all). The rain held off for the first night.
I checked in at the Le Meridien, which I've learned in the year since I stayed here last has given out its second floor to become a nightclub. They have ladies night on Thursdays and from waht I can tell it is very popular. I arrived at 10pm from the airport, and left aroudn 10:30pm to head to a couple cocktail bars and there were long lines to enter, with what was nice to see mostly local Vietnamese girls dressed to the nines. What was a bit odd though is they don't have a dedicated elevator, so on my ride up to my room I shared the elevator with five girls, these happened to be from Australia. When I arrived back to my hotel at 1:30am, I asked what the cover was and it was 500k dong (~$20) which is super high for HCMC, but I guess it is one of the glitzier clubs. That's not my bag man, at least not in HCMC.
I did go to two cocktail bars that are situated about a block apart, both on the second floor of buildings that you require some trust to walk down fairly grungy alleyways and climb stairs, but then get treated to lovely cocktails in great settings. One thing I'll say of the bat, while they may not have the refinement of the top ones I went to in Japan, they seemed stronger, which depending on how you look at it may be more important. Nothing crazy tonight - leaving The Observatory, and checking out The Lighthouse, the next couple nights.
When I left Japan, I did wonder should I have rearranged and added Sapporo (North island) to my trip instead of going back to HCMC. Ultimately, I'm happy I didn't for two reasons, first: this is the end of my Singapore Airlines miles (side-note: not really in teh sense I can convert Citi points to them), and I don't know when I would find myself in Southeast Asia again, and two: there is definitely enough stuff to warrant another Japan trip. When? Who knows, but that itinerary is out there.
