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Four short days after my return from Myanmar, I went to Tokyo with Cristina and Petra, two close friends I’ve made here in Seoul during the past two years.  I feel really lucky to be close with these two “girls” who are both considerably younger than I…but “oh well”. Cristina is French-Romanian and we met in Korean class and still take the public classes together, encouraging each other to learn this challenging language.  Her eldest daughter Ilinca plays soccer with Daphne and Zoe at Seoul Foreign School and our families went skiing together in Pyeongchang last winter. Although Petra’s son Edie also attends SFS with our girls, Edie (and Petra for that matter!)  is so much younger than our girls (and I), that our school lives don’t overlap at all.  However Cristina, who shares a SFS bus stop with Petra, introduced us early on and we quickly became friends and now play tennis together on Saturday mornings. The three of us regularly meet for lunch and get together with our husbands, Guillaume and Jiri…and I bet you can tell who goes with whom.

Last year during one of our jolly lunches, Petra declared that our friendship reminded her of the movie “The Witches of Eastwick” and since then she always refers to Cristina and I as “her Witches”.  Somehow I missed this 1987 American “classsic” (?) that featured Susan Sarandon, Cher, Michelle Pieffer and Jack Nicholson, but I am happy to be one of Petra’s Witches!  Out of focus and not the most professional of photos, the image below does nonethless capture the playful spirit of my two beloved witch friends.

The Tokyo trip was Petra’s idea and she pushed (nagged even!) us to carve out a long weekend and commit to this adventure last Fall.  We deliberately chose a weekend in early April to see the cherry blossoms in their full glory.  Japan is so close to Seoul that a weekend trip is quite easy, affordable and well worth the effort.   Fortunately, Cristina and her family love to ski in Japan and have been to Tokyo previously so she was able to plan our trip and arrange for our Airbnb apartment.  Cristie is amazingly good at scouting out things to explore, working out the logistics of it all and generously sharing her information, expertise and ideas. Both Petra and I really, really appreciate this “witch” and her tireless energy!!

After a smooth flight that even scaredy-cat Petra survived (but not without a bit of trepidation!), we landed at Haneda aiport and were greeted by a long customs line which afforded a great opportunity to guess the ethnicities of all those around us and to appreciate the diversity of cultures, dress, languages on display relative to homogeneous, mostly Korean Seoul. Although it was after 11pm, our plan was to ride the subway to our Airbnb and so we went to find an ATM to withdraw some Japanese yen.  Stupidly, and despite Petra’s instructions, I selected the 100,000Y option thinking that would be roughly $100. WRONG!  I basically withdrew $900 (!!!) which still amazes me since I’ve never been to an ATM in any country that permits such large withdrawals.  The massive outflow of money from our account was quickly detected by Bill the Banker in Seoul who queried me the next morning.  My yen reserves actually came in handy for Petra who had the opposite problem and was unable to withdraw any funds from her Korean account all weekend.  Just one example of how we “witches” work together I guess.

Many other tourists had traveled to Tokyo this spring weekend to take in the cherry blossoms so finding an aparment had been challenging for Cristina. Our apartment’s location near the Nippori subway in Arakawa was ideal, but there were trade-offs.  The photos below say it all.  It was a no-frills affair, a big shock for me after staying in super luxurious resorts in Myanmar, but perfectly clean and quiet and I know can’t “play princess” all the time.  In any event, we spent very little waking time there.

We were thankful for the clean linens, heat, stovetop, and potable drinking water…but less thankful for the painting that fell off the wall, smacking a sleepy Petra hard on the head one morning, and the somewhat scary shower/laundry room.  There were two bedrooms, each with a set of bunkbeds, and Petra bounced back in forth between the two rooms to be sure Cristie and I weren’t “lonely”.  Just love this warm, sensitive side of Petra!  I slept soundly each night regardless of her presence since we never stopped moving each day from 10am til 1am!!

Coincidentally, our apartment was located above a Korean restaurant so we passed familiar food items and Korean beer stored in the entryway, laughing to ourselves that we just couldn’t get away from Seoul.   We exchanged cheery “ahnyeong ha sey yo”s (hellos) with the restauranteur who seemed to enjoy the little bit of Korea who had come to visit her in Tokyo.  Each morning before we set out we ate a simple but convenient breakfast in a cafe directly across the the street.

While we were very interested in seeing the famous Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo’s sprawling wholesale fish and daily tuna auction, the pre-dawn tour time was a major deterrent.  Cristina estimated that we would need to rise at 3:45am to make the 5am tour and we unanimously agreed that we witches needed our beauty sleep more than this bit of culture.  (And this “old” witch needs it more than the two younger two…) Instead, we visited Tsukiji Market as early as we could after our late arrival from Seoul the night before.  As we neared Tsukiji market, the alleys leading to the wholesale market were crowded and full of weary, hungry tourists were filing out in search of dining spots.  Even though it was only 10:30am, there were plenty of folks (jet-lagged tourists I presume) drinking and enjoying the incredibly fresh seafood.  I liked the corks outside one restaurant but it was a bit to start drinking. 

One eating stall featuring sea urchins was particularly popular and I stopped to snap some pictures and ask questions about the different ones for sale.

As much as I found the displays appealing, I still do not enjoy eating uni since the I can’t get over the consistency which reminds me of the cow’s tongue my mother would periodically serve (torture us with?) for dinner.

Once inside Tsukiji, we wandered around the huge structure which was mostly empty at this point since the fish auction was over.  Everywhere, fishmongers were cleaning up their stalls, hosing down fish blood and guts and packaging up product for wholesale delivery.  There was very little seafood leftover and no fishy smell at all which attests to how very fresh the seafood is and how much is caught, sold and consumed daily.

The “mighty cars” with their circular drive-trains and open sides were zipping everywhere, noislessly shuttling boxes of product around.  I secretly wanted to jump on one to take a spin or maybe race my witches around the big hall, but for many reasons this was not a possiblity.  I’m surprised I haven’t seen “mighty cars” used for other purposes since they allow the operator to use both hands and access all sides off the flatbed, maneover easily in tight spaces and are generally so much more nimble than a fork lift.

Empty crates were being stacked and fishmongers, both male and female, were settling up their ledgers.  One woman was wearing a very stylish suede coat which seemed quite out of place in this bustling wholesale market.

Adjacent to fish market and in the same large hanger is a wholesale produce market. Here, vegetables and flowers were still being sold and we leisurely strolled along the colorful aisles.  I’d never seen wasabi before so was intrigued by it’s shape.  We asked a local about the plant since we couldn’t envision how it grew/which way was “up/down” and she gave us a long explanation that was DEAD WRONG and she was leading a bunch of tourists around.  We wondered what other erroneous information she was spewing…For those of you who’ve only eaten wasabi paste and not worked with the rhizome itself, in the photo below, the plant stalks have been cut and the bumpy root is what is grated and eaten.  It is expensive and was selling here at a wholesale price of $180/kg.

Known for the artistic approach to food presentation, the Japanese use lots of flowers to decorate dishes, like the spring blossoms for sale here.

The variety of fruits and vegetables for sale made us all a bit jealous since we can’t get many of these items in Seoul…like the fresh asparagus seen boxed here.

Busy with my camera, I took a different route through these produce stalls and had to be tracked down by the witches who seemed a bit annoyed and ready to move on…so we did!  Even the trucks outside were artistic and distinctly different from the ubiquitous blue Hyundai porter trucks of Seoul.

Cristie, our intreprid witch leader, had mapped out the day and next introduced us to the very clean and easy to navigate Tokyo subway which we rode a lot during our weekend jaunt. People watching was entertaining and I especially liked the ladies dressed in traditional kimonos we often saw.  We teased Petra about how much more attractive she said she found the Japanese men compared to the Korean men and promised not to tell Jiri about her musings…oops! The cherry blossoms were in bloom throughout the city as you can see from the few pictures I took on our walk to the subway.  Here, Cristie is grabbing a mid-morning snack since she didn’t follow our smoothie/pastry lead and was famished by this point.

We spent the next hour or so in Hamarikyu Gardens, a large public park at the mouth of the Sumida River, that was built on the site of a villa of a 17c. shogun family.   Here, we wandered around the grounds enjoying the stately old trees, spring blossoms and views of the river in this fomer fortress.   This park is located right in the center of Tokyo and office buildings are visible in the distance and yet, it is a large, calm open space with many trails, historic buildings, a large pond and graceful bridges.

Oh…and some really nice flora too!

From here, we took a ferry ride down the Sumida River and went under lots of bridges and by many interesting skyscrapers.  Locals and tourists alike were strolling along the riverbanks taking in the cherry blossoms blooming all around the city.

At our destination, we had gorgeous views of the New Toyko Tower (also known as Skytree) which dwarfs the original Tokyo Tower and looks considerably like the Seoul Tower we know well.  Nearby is what locals refer to as the “Poo” building, much to the dismay of the Asahi Brewers who had designed a gold flame to sit atop of their large beer hall.  

Once off the ferry, we walked along the west bank of the river across from where lots of locals were picnicing under the blooming cherry trees.  It was a festive atmosphere and the sun had come out from behind the clouds rendering everything just a bit brighter. Several girls were strolling around in kimonos and taking selfies akin to how Koreans love to do the same in hanbok, traditional Korean costumes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved the fresh chrysanthemums and peonies in their hair as well as the adorable little girl “en costume”.

Tokyo’s oldest and most famous temple, Seosoji Temple, is just a short walk from here, but a world away in terms of atmosphere.  Throngs of tourists were visiting this 1,500 year old temple, as you can see in the picture below of its famous Kaminarimon Gate and huge red chochin lantern.

I liked the dragon sculptures around the large purification fountain just inside.

Adjacent to the Buddhist temple is Asakusa Shrine, a large Shinto shrine which we explored a bit. Here, the old wooden gate was decorated with paper prayer flags.  Near a Buddha scuplture in the garden, lots of people had tied the o-mikuji paper fortunes to strings, saying prayers in hopes their wishes would be granted.

Cristie had been to this site already and frankly the crowd was a turn-off so we didn’t linger long. At this point in the day, we were also quite hungrey, impatient to find food and unwilling to properly explore dining options.  This was a fatal mistake because we ate one of the worst meals I’ve had in Asia at a Chinese joint (why…you ask did we eat Chinese in Japan?) less than a block from this tourist attraction.  Erroneously, I ordered LIVER which was not only disgusting, but also dreadfully salty!  Petra’s ramen soup was a better choice, but barely.  Fortunately, Petra had almonds to snack on during the afternoon!

We visited a small traditional handiworks gallery that was less-than-memorable in this witch’s opinion.  I was far more intrigued by the owl cafe we walked by and the woman standing outside with a large hooded owl trying to entice customers inside.  Apparently, the Japanese love owls, holding and patting them, just as Koreans love playing with cats in cafes.  I wish I’d snapped a picture….

Next we headed to the posh Roggongi Hills area which tourists and Japanes both like, and hate, for its raucous nightlife scene.  We stopped to re-charge both ourselves and our electronic devices at a Cinnabon cafe (yum!) and then headed to the Mori Art Museum to kill time before our 10pm dinner reservations at a special spot Guillaume’s colleague had recommended.  Despite heavy resistance from the “timid witch” (Petra) who suffers a bit from claustrophobia, and doesn’t “do” elevators, we decided to go up to the observation tower on the museum’s 52nd floor before it closed for the evening.  There was barely any daylight so my camera had trouble without a flash, but we still thought the 360 degree views of Tokyo were pretty spectacular…the witch portrait a bit less so.

Just oustide Mori Museum is a giant bronze spider sculpture known as “Maman” by the late French artist Louise Bourgeois that our French artsy witch recognized right away.  It was pretty cool and quite large.

We tried to slide into a large Craft Sake Festival taking place in an open courtyard with beautifully lit cherry trees, but the event was winding down and we wiches were a bit relunctant to start down the “sake slope”.  Plenty of folks were headed that way though as you can see in the photo below.

 

We saw a great exhibit entitled “Charming Journey” by N.S. Harsha and there wasn’t any prohibition against taking photos which I found odd, but certainly convenient for “blogging purposes”.  There were over 100 works by this Indian artist and we rented the audio guides to better understand the meaning behind the wide range of paintings, sculptures and installations exhibited.  One room was full of 193 old-fashioned, pedal-powered sewing machines from around the world, each working on a flag and connected to other machines with colorful thread.  In the artist’s own words, “these beautiful machines are a metaphor for human labour.  They create firm bonding between two edges.  They give strength to the clothes we wear and use in our daily lives.  All these characters are essential and needed for mankind in present global conditions.”  With this “Nations” installation, N.S. Harsha is trying to raise awareness about labor-outsourcing, migration and the diverse socio-cultural and economic conditions around the world.  The room also reminded by of the great Spider’s Web birthday party game that I loved as a child and so did my girls!

 

Another striking room was filled with brightly painted oxford shirts.  Here, the artist had engaged with local school children in Tokyo asking them to paint their futures on a white business shirt.  It made me wonder what I would have painted and just how far that would be from what is my life today.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most dramatic in scale and impact was the last piece in this exhibit and it was enormous!  “Again birth…Again Death” spanned the entire length of a large room and tries to articulate the entire universe in one giant brushstroke.  Full of detail up close and mesmorizing when viewed from afar, we actually sat down on the floor to take this majestic work in.  Maybe, too, because we witches were a tad tired by now!

Eager to rest our weary feet and eat some better fare than what we sampled at lunch, we wound our way to Teyandei, a tavern or izikaya-style restaurant that was still full of dining guests at 10pm.  A nearby table of 3 young women and 2 men kept us quessing as to who was flirting with whom and who among the women held the “power”.  We loved every dish we ordered, especially the homemade sesame tofu and finally relaxed after a wonderfully busy day.  By the time we made it back to our Airbnb, it was almost 1am so falling asleep in the bunk beds was hardly a challenge!

After a repeat breakfast in the cafe across the street we were off for another packed day in Tokyo. By now, I understood that our lead witch (“Commander Cristie”) was not going to allow me some downtime (my idea had been to return to the apartment late afternoon to change, sip wine and re-group a bit before our late dinner…) so I drank plenty of coffee and ate heartily to fortify.

We set off to explore the small quaint streets off the main avenues in the Shijuku ward. Our walk began at a beautiful shinto shrine where a wedding ceremony was taking place.  As desperate as I was to film the event, discretion got the better part of me.  Each guest bowed in front of the hall and tugged on the rope before entering the shrine.

We had barely begun our stroll when I spotted Fromagerie Alpage.  The display case literally pulled me in the door with its array of cheeses since I desperately miss this food item in Seoul where the importation on non-pasteurized cheese is mostly prohibited. Despite the early hour and having to carry cheese in my bag for the rest of the day, I made several purchases which Bill, Daphne, Zoe and I much appreciated upon my return.  Much to my surprise, my fellow witches showed considerable restraint and didn’t follow my lead.  Such restraint…

After this detour and a few mis-turns, we arrived at another small shrine with a peaceful garden in spring bloom.  I wasn’t sure why there were sake barrels at the shrine so I looked it up.  These kazaridaro (or decoration) barrels are not actually filled with sake but are symbolic of the way sake is believed to bring gods and people together. Warm sake wine is traditonally served during shinto ceremonies as well.  The hymn carved into the boulder was lovely and I briefly and very quietly tried to hum the tune.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued to stoll in this quiet neighborhood and I took pictures of various moments that seemed to capture the bright colors (turquoise taxis!) and diversity of culture (crepes to die for!) in Tokyo relative to the grey, homogeneity of Seoul. Below are some of the traditional Japanese wooden prayer tablets, sandals (widely expensive in this footwear shop!) and storefront decorations we passed by.

For snack, we sampled some famous Japanese confections filled with caramel which were far too sweet even for my sugar tooth.  Petra secretly bought me a lovely scarf from a sweet shop next door and I cherish it for its lovely design and the memories.  A nearby river cafe was exceedingly popular as you can see from the long queue of folks waiting to dine at this boat house.

 

This day we put a bit more effort into our lunch decision and settled upon a popular cute spot with a small wait outside.  Interestingly, we had to place our order using a sort of vending machine outside the cafe first, then wait outside and call to be seated.  Despite the cafeteria manner of ordering, the food was yummy and the dumplings and warm ramen soup were far better than the previous salty liver lunch. I liked the traditional wall decorations and bowls in this cafe as much as the food.

The Shijuku ward abuts Omote-sandõ boulevard, also known as Tokyo’s Champs Élysée because of the designer shops along this tree-lined avenue leading up to Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park. “Omote-sandō” literally means “front-approach” to this 134 acre city park that served as a venue for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and then opened as a public park in 1967.  Full of many species of trees and flowers, the park feels a bit like an arboretum and is host to many festivals, dance performances and public gatherings all year long.  Along with plenty of fellow pedestrians, we passed under the 40 ft. high torii entrance gates and entered the calm, quiet park filled with mature, stately trees.

The Meiji Jingu Shrine was completed in 1920 and is Japan’s most venerated shrine.  It is dedicated to the souls of Emporer Meiji and his wife Empress Shokun.  Considered Japan’s most significant ruler, Emporer Meiji is credited with unifying Japan and ushering the country into an era of industrialization, urbanization and colonial expansion.  Along the path to Meiji Shrine itself was a big display of sake and wine barrels.  Our French witch enjoyed learning about this special relationship between her country and Japan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Meiji shrine itself was crowded and surprisingly not that impressive, but perhaps we are a bit immune to shrines and palaces after living in Asia.  Here is one photo without throngs of visitors blocking the view.

After Meiji Shrine we decided to shop a bit in Omote-sandõ and check out the street scene.  Though unrelated, I could help but notice that these two just seemed to go together.

In general, we found Japanese fashion much more adventurous than what we see in Seoul.  The variety of clothing, hairstyles and accessories was a welcome change from the Korean “uniform”.  The folks below were moving a bit too quickly for my camera but I just had to try to capture their special outfits and love of feathers?!

Cristie was on a mission to buy some Tiger Onitzuka sneakers since she knew they would be more affordable in Tokyo than in Seoul.  I hadn’t really heard of this brand, but as was immediately evident in the store, EVERYONE else has!  Cristie was in heaven and a bit overwhelmed by the selection.  Petra, on the other hand, was visibly drooping outside while she waited for Cristie to maker her choice…see below.  Whenever she wears these sneakers, they remind me of our nice girls’ weekend in Tokyo.

We wandered around this busy shopping district a bit longer and even briefly pretended we were star-crazed teenagers while we waiting with a group of young girls for a K-pop (yes, even in Japan) star to emerge from a hotel.  He never did and we witches sensibly decided to grow up and move on.  BIC Camera and a giant Uniqlo store beckoned us and here we were able to find our favorite eraseable pens, Fuji polaroid film and other stationary items at much more reasonable prices than in Seoul.  We were too weary to try on clothes however.

Cristie’s next mission was to find a specific red hair dye color for Ilina.  The SFS soccer team was traveling to Beijing the following week for the Asia Pacific tournament and the whole team, Daphne and Zoe included, was getting red (in honor of SFS’s school colors vs. China) hair extensions, but Ilinca wanted to take it a step further…of course.  Our resourceful witch Cristie did some homework and identified Tokyo Hands as the most liking store to carry such hair dyes.  Petra, our crafty witch who loves doing art projects with Edie’s class was happy to visit this vast DIY store and stock up on supplies as well.

Again, our dinner reservations were late so Cristina suggested we have a drink in a cafe overlooking Shibuya crossing which is rumored to be the busiest intersection in the world.  Apparently, during the workday, this 5-way intersection looks as if a black carpet has been laid out because of all the suit-clad pedestrians using the intersecting crosswalks.  Unfortunately, a few other tourists had the same idea and we were unable to get a seat by a window or on a terrace to take views of the busy intersection.  Here are a few shots I took through a glass window.

 

Tokyo is crowded for sure, but Petra, Cristie and I noticed that it feels distinctly different from Seoul, less hurried and calmer.  Certainly, there are far fewer cars on the road and less traffic/pollution.  While the two cities are similar in terms of population and density, with Seoul ranked slightly higher in both measures, the slightly fewer people alone is not enough to account for the noticeably quieter feel.  We witches can easily imagine living in Tokyo and plan to visit again next year to do more “market research”!

We did however find a nice bookstore/cafe and settled in to kill time before our late dinner reservations.  Petra, the youngest and most playful witch among us, decided we needed to make origami creatures while we sipped wine.  She pulled up a You Tube video and coaxed us through the folding steps.  Some of us were better “students” than others….ahem…Cristie?  Here’s a shot of our cranes alongside of the cheese platter we devoured while “working”.  After a lengthy and a bit circuitous (thanks the weak google map skills of this witch), we finally found 35 Steps Bistro, another izikaya tavern style restaurant in the Shibuya area. This spot was popular too and we ate another delicious dinner while watching the crowd around us.  The men at the adjacent table enjoyed their sake so much that they spilled quite a bit on the floor before stumbling out.  The grilled mackeral with just a squeeze of lemon juice on top was heavenly!  Although our heads didn’t hit the pillows til after 1am again, this full day and late dinner were very memorable.  Here’s to the THREE WITCHES!

On Sunday, we woke to the sound of rain so rolled over and slept a bit later.  We had an evening flight back to Seoul so decided to first checkout of the apartment and store our bags at the nearby train station from where we would later catch the rapid train to Narita airport.  Not feeling the need to shop or re-visit the busy Shibuya and Omote-sandõ neighborhoods, we opted instead to explore the bohemian neighborhood of Shimokitazama which was just a short train ride away.  With no particular destination in mind, we just spent the day wandering around this artsy neighborhood, enjoying the soft rain and sights.  Petra looked particularly good in her poncho!

The rain soaked streets and bright umbrellas made all the little signs and sights sparkle on the streets.  I just loved snapping pictures along our walk.

Cristie bought a brightly color bag that she now carries in Seoul and always reminds me of the little shop full of hand-made items we adored. We finished our time in Shimokitazama with a leisurely lunch in a Thai restaurant.

Petra, who lived in Thailand for years, declared the cuisine and atmosphere quite authentic, though I didn’t really care since I was just happen to be with my WITCHES IN JAPAN!