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Writing about Tokyo isn’t as simple as the description of our time in Kyoto.  My experience of Tokyo wasn’t linear or as clearly definable as our days in the quieter, older city.

We had a list of things to see and do plotted semi-randomly against our calendar - recommendations from friends who had been to Japan and a lot of reading online.  Catherine bought the wonderful Hello Sandwich Tokyo guide which helped us find all sorts of tiny and wonderful neighbourhoods we might not have seen otherwise.

On the more touristy side of things, there were the huge suburbs of Shibuya and Shinjuku, Tokyo Disney, Studio Ghibli, the Mori Tower and for a few of us, the Tsujiki fish market and tuna auction.

There were the contrasts: beautiful minimalism and glaring neon at the Pachinko parlours.  Quiet trains during the day which were a hub of noise and activity late night. The beautiful, eclectic fashion sense of the young girls and the strict business dress code.

My favourite thing to do was explore little neighbourhoods like Shimokitazawa and Daikanyama.  Tiny streets, small restaurants and a lot of observation of regular Tokyo life.  We’d go, wander around and not see another tourist for miles. Even in our own neighbourhood (Yotsuya), there were plenty of random & wonderful things to find, like a BBQ restaurant where we sat around barrels and cooked our own food the first night we arrived to the sound of businessmen laughing and clinking their beer mugs.

It was so easy to move around within Tokyo and become a part of it.  The rest of the story is in some of the pictures, or a few anecdotes that we should share over a nice cold Asahi sometime.

See also:
My full set on flickr | Sneak’s on Flickr

For a couple of years a group of our friends have been talking about visiting Japan.  The ideas crystallised into a plan and “Japan Club” was born: Catherine, Matt, Morgan, Selena, Mike, Darren and me.  We agreed that it was a loose group travel arrangement - we’d wander and explore and if it ended up being separately during the day, we’d meet up and share our stories over a nice cold Japanese beer.

We headed from the airport to our accommodation, the traditional ryokan/inn-style Nishiyama Ryokan in Kyoto.  We enjoyed the 90 minute drive, exclaiming over the efficiency of the toll booths, the branding of hotels and buildings along the highway and our first look at the autumn foliage.  November was the right month to travel here.  It’s very warm in the sun though cool in the shade, and the colours of the leaves are stunning. Arriving at the ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) was a delight.  We dropped our bags off, re-grouped a little and headed straight back into the streets.  Even the street we were staying on was so lovely - clean, soft colour, bikes everywhere, vending machines and a lot of plants.   Getting to our accommodation had been no hassle whatsoever and we figured the train station might be where we first started to come unstuck with only a handful of Japanese phrases between the 7 of us.  It wasn’t to be though and we figured out the train ticket machines with minimal help from the “English Guidance” screen.  All the stops have a code and a price for the distance, e.g. T-15 or K-20 so you are able to tell where you are, where you’re going and how much it will cost to get from A to B.  

Taking the different JR line system was no more difficult.  We went out into the outskirts of Tokyo to enjoy a river boat ride down to Arashiyama and see the bamboo forest there.  The boat ride was great and extremely picturesque with clear water, rocks and the beautiful colours of the autumn leaves.   The 3 Japanese men rowing the boat chattered away to the other passengers in Japanese, joking and laughing the whole way.  We occasionally went over some small rapids but mostly it was a gentle glide along the river.  Arashiyama was the busiest place we’d seen since arriving.  As it is tourist season and there is a public holiday on Tuesday, there were a lot of people on holiday there - more Japanese than foreign as far as we could see.  We walked through the bamboo forest and then headed back into Kyoto to get settled in our rooms at the ryokan and find some dinner. 

The vending machines fascinate me here.  They’re all on the sidewalk and not necessarily attached to a shop.  The most common ones we’ve seen are for drinks and cigarettes, though we’ve also seen ice creams and soy bars.  They are incredibly easy to use.  Initially we only bought cold drinks though on the way back from Arashiyama Matt was brave and selected a can of hot chocolate. We were prepared for it to be cold as the majority of the drinks in the machine were, however it was hot!  You could also buy a variety of coffee drinks and what appears to be corn soup (though no one is willing to try it).  

The ryokan rooms we stayed in where lovely - we’d booked two rooms for the 7 of us and had decided to split the group into boys & girls, so I was sharing with Catherine and Selena.  We had a lovely space with our tatami mats, a low table & chairs as well as a changing room with screens.  Part of the provisions in the room were kimono, jackets & slippers to wear within the ryokan.  We didn’t really wear them too much (though Catherine wore hers down to the public bath downstairs) but it was the second morning when we shared the dining room with some Japanese guests who were all wearing theirs that I wished I had too.  One of the boys’ favourite features of the ryokan was the Asahi vending machine on the basement level.

The choices for breakfast in the ryokan was Western or Japanese and for the first morning I’d opted for Japanese.  The spread was fascinating and each place setting included all kinds of little dishes & bowls.  The woman serving us spoke no English but lit our small cookers and demonstrated how to cook the tofu.  We also had a packet of nori, sauce and endlessly topped up rice bowls which we ate with our hands, pickles, a salad which was mainly cabbage, some fruit and miso soup.   The second morning I opted for the Western which was a slightly odd attempt at bacon & eggs amongst other things but was glad of that because the Japanese was a bit confronting for so early in the morning.  

I was very excited but also a little nervous about the ‘Kyoto back streets’ bike tour I’d booked for all of us.  We arrived at the bike shop at 9:15 and saw a huge line of people waiting to rent bikes.  I’d read that the Japanese travel a lot by bike but hadn’t been sure how true that was - we’d seen rows of bikes and people of all ages riding them all over Kyoto.  There are lots of bike parking spaces and everyone rides these lovely street bikes with baskets on the front.  Nothing sporty about it at all - they also ride on the sidewalk mostly and without helmets.

It didn’t take us long to get sorted on our bikes and we were off with our guide Naoko.  I had a big smile on my face immediately as our single file line took off down an alleyway.  The tour was cleverly constructed so that we visited different types of temples (Shinto, Buddhist, Zen and a Chinese-style one with the distinctive Torii gates) as well as a quiet geisha town (where we had to wheel our bikes)  and Gion, the geisha district.  We saw a few women all dressed up in geisha outfits but Naoko explained that the geisha and maiko (training geisha) would not be out in the street on a Sunday morning so they were likely to be imitation.  They also only wear the gorgeous and decorative kimonos when they are entertaining at night, so had we seen them in the day we might not have known they were geisha with their ordinary kimonos on.

I loved the back alleys - everything was so tidy and clean with potted plants, tiny vans and bikes all over the place.  We rode along a river and some nice big paths along the canals, which was a nice balance to the tiny alleys.  It really gave us a sense of the different parts of Kyoto - we saw heaps of people off to their Sunday activities or celebrating the national tradition of taking their 3 year old girls and 5 year old boys to be blessed at the temples.  The kids all dressed up in their outfits were extremely cute!  It was hard not to take photos of just about everything along the way - I think most of mine are shops, streets and houses.  Everything is so stylish here in a wonderfully understated way.  It’s clean & tidy and almost hard to believe that so many people live in close proximity to each other. 

After the bike tour we were pretty knackered - and hungry - so we tackled a huge department store to find food.  The food floor was called “Eat Paradise” so I was pretty excited but it wasn’t as big as expected.  I opted for a tuna sashimi meal (tray?) and was a bit surprised when it didn’t appear as it would have at home - it wasn’t the pieces of raw tuna as I had expected and had been marinated in some tomato-based spicy mixture.  It was on rice, cabbage and had an egg in the bowl too.  At first I wasn’t sure I could eat it but did manage to get through most of it!

We had considered checking out more temples and the Imperial Palace in the afternoon but the bike tour had covered most of that so opted for random Japanese snacks & cans of beer in our room.  The snacks were chosen at the nearby 7-11 based on the pictures on the front (aside from the requisite Pocky and Toppo which are becoming a staple snack).  Most of the snacks were really interesting & tasty though unfortunately Mike’s selection ‘The Horn’ tasted like a biscuit version of a slightly off vanilla dairy product like Yoplait.  It was a nice way to unwind with Matt playing some music and general discussion of what we’d seen to date.  By early evening we were feeling pretty tired - Morgan and Selena headed out to a Michelin star restaurant while the rest of us went to a Spanish restaurant just down our street.  

Our time in Kyoto felt like a perfect slice of life in Japan and we were ready to move on to Tokyo.

saturday was my nephew’s birthday party day and we spent the morning preparing a nice lunch for the party.  my mother had made a madeira cake and we made a cave on the top, added dinosaurs and some sprinkles and it was jurassic park all over again.  after the party we had a short rest and then headed in to the town square for some early supper.

the town square is a large area bordered by shops and restaurants. it has a large fountain in the middle which lights up and plays music as well as a nice big shade sail.  we checked out the windows of some of the arab shops (selling abayat and various other items) as well as a large fabric shop.  when we were looking at all the buttons - something i seem to buy a lot of to change out on things and never do - a woman fully covered, including her face, came in the door and asked me if i was a visitor.  when i replied that i was, she handed me a handmade bracelet and said ‘welcome!’ before going back out the door again. i was stoked and the bracelet now lives around the neck of my toy camel, akmed.  we ate some lovely moroccan food and then headed home. by the time we were leaving (about 9pm) the traffic had really picked up and there was a bit of a jam around the streets - the lateness of it all being something i can’t quite get used to.

sunday morning we left for oman again but this time headed out to the east, through buraimi with my brother, sister-in-law & the kids in convoy.  the border crossing this time was different and had a lot of extra paperwork involved which was confusing.  the doors didn’t seem to have any signage on them and almost looked like prefab buildings but we eventually figured out what to fill out, where to pay & got the required stamps.  once through the border  we noticed as usual the change in the scenery - amazing since al ain and buraimi are so close together; if you are just going from al ain into buraimi or vice versa you don’t have to do the whole border crossing palaver.

about an hour’s drive east out on the coast is the town of sohar, home of the legendary sinbad the sailor.  the eastern coast of oman is often referred to as the pirate coast (though the north was as well, so i guess it’s all pirate territory).  we had a lovely lunch at the sohar beach hotel with the family and then they decided to stay there the night and go back the next morning so we continued on.

as we drove down the coast we noticed how there is very little between the larger centres.  everything is pretty empty in the afternoons anyway as people are inside but some of the little places hardly even had a shop in them.  one tiny town we stopped in to try and get a coke had a souk and a few shops, including the typical one with a stack of appliances outside (not sure why they do this as they must get so dusty). there was a shell station but the shop itself was empty - there was just a chair and an attendant outside but nothing in the building.  this was something we found was common in a lot of the small places in oman - not sure why.  i walked around to where we thought might be a shop but there was nothing but the souk and a few arab-style shops with goods in them.  i took a few photos and a couple of men asked me to take their photo which was cool.  not many tourists stop there i don’t think!

after a few hours drive we arrived in muscat - a beautiful, beautiful place.  the mosques are colourful with lots of blue and green domes and crescent shapes on top.  the architecture of the buildings quite different to the uae with coloured mirrored glass in the windows of all different colours, a lot of arch shaped windows and heaps of white buildings with the flat roofs.  as we drove down towards the corniche/waterfront we wound through some fantastic tiny lanes and found our hotel right on the corniche overlooking the water.  it was soooo humid (50+) but we were stoked.  we immediately went for a (very sweaty) walk along the waterfront and found the main souk and some dinner.

we had planned that monday would be a full day in muscat, where we would stay again and then head back to al ain early tuesday.  we got up early and went to look at the great mosque, the omani national museum, the omani-french museum and had quite a good drive around the city on the way.  we saw the palace and quite a few other sights, such as the giant incense burner and various forts/watch towers.  it was interesting to see the history of the french and the portugese influence there as well as it is well apparent.  we spent the afternoon driving around and also in one of the nice cool malls, before heading back to the waterfront for dinner.

on wednesday we started the journey up north and our first trip into oman.  we had decided to visit dubai again and stay a night there so we could catch up with my nz  friend sophie who lives at the moment in sharjah (though is about to head off to ethiopia to teach).  

dubai is largely unappealing to me as a city despite having the apparent ‘sydney syndrome’ and being a popular place for visitors.  most people thought when we said we were going to the emirates that we’d be based in dubai - in fact abu dhabi is the capital of the uae…  we did pass the time in good ways though despite it’s a busy, messy, dusty city.  apparently also very empty now compared to 6-12 months ago but this didn’t bother us one bit!

we went to the mall of the emirates to see the huge ski slope inside.  it was quite busy and quite sizable.  after this we checked into the hotel and went for a coffee with sophie on jumeirah road at the one. post-coffee we decided to fit in some sights so went down to the souk madinat which is well worth the visit.  sitting on the bank of a creek sipping a rarely found bee and watching people go past in water taxis was very pleasant.

we had a slightly touristy plan for the evening based on a recommendation from a friend of my mum’s - dinner cruise in a decorated dhow on the creek.  it was nice to be out on the creek and the boats looked very pretty but i definitely think if you’re going to do this don’t go for the budget option - our boat had an egyptian theme for some reason.  it was nice to have more hang out time with sophie though and would have been hotter in town i guess…

thursday morning bright and early we headed up to oman through sharjah and ras-al-khaimah, two more of the northern emirates.  we were a bit foiled by the sights we had planned to see - the blue souk in sharjah could not be located by our trusty gps (which seems to know even the smallest places) and when we got to r-a-k the museum was closed for the afternoon period/siesta type portion of the day.  undeterred, we headed to cross the border.   the border crossing was fairly low key - despite an alarming lack of signage or indication of the process we figured it out eventually and went through.  i am not used to land borders really; from the states into canada it was weird and here too.  there are only sea borders from nz!

the northern part of oman is called mussandam - it’s separated from the main part of oman by the uae; the capital of mussendam is called khasab, a fishing town where we planned to stay.  pretty much as soon as we crossed the border the geography and architecture changed.  instead of camels, there were goats roaming next to the roads. the sand dunes disappeared and we saw why this part of land is referred to as the ‘norway of the east’ - the mountains basically plunge straight into the sea and there are lots of fjords.  as we drove around the winding road there were lots of tiny towns - some with only a few houses, a small mosque and several fishing boats. 

khasab has only been open to tourism for a short time apparently and it’s well worth the effort to get up there.  we drove around the small town and loved the small alleys away from the street, the beautiful sea and the way the mountains were right in town.  we checked into the khasab hotel (pretty much the main place to stay in town unless you go for the golden tulip which is much more expensive) and had a lovely swim in the pool and dinner.

friday morning saw us on a dhow cruise again - this time a bit more of an authentic experience out in the strait of hormuz and around the so-called pirate coast.  the docks were an experience in themselves - a group of dhows lined up and tied together. to get to the boat we were on we had to clamber across the ones in the way.  the dhows were lined with oriental carpets and embroidered cushions which made for quite comfortable travelling.  

we pulled out into the strait and headed around the rocks for telegraph island.  on the way out there we saw both lovely groups of dolphins and little towns built into the side of the mountains so the trip had quite a surreal feeling.  apparently the water between mussendam and iran (i.e. the strait) is used by smugglers which made it all seem even more exotic!  after about an hour we stopped sailing and jumped overboard for a swim in the warm waters - the only problem being that it just wasn’t that refreshing! 

this dhow cruise was well worth it but we were also ready to bid farewell to mussendam in the early afternoon and headed back to al ain via al dhaid - a drive with a LOT of sand in it!  we got home early evening and ate dinner with my mum, my brother and sister-in-law who had arrived from australia the previous evening with the niece and nephew.

monday was a bit of a chill out day as really we were planning our side travels for later in the week and taking it a bit easy.  in the afternoon we went to the hotel ratana for a swim which was lovely - it has bar stools in the hotel pool bar but we just swam around a bit and then laid out in the late afternoon sun.  my favourite time of the day here is about 5-6pm to swim when its still so warm out but the sun is starting to go down (or alternatively 7-8amish in the morning before it gets too hot and you can just feel the air around you).

after swimming we went to a place my mum goes to a bit called food n fun, which seems in a way typical of the ‘general’ restaurants here.  if it’s not western-style takeaway chains there seem to be a lot of these.  they seem to cover most bases food-wise and often that means things might not be exactly what you expect.  we ordered things though that we knew would be as expected (curry) and bread.  it was in a different part of town than we had been before and next to a shisha bar which was all lit up.  one part of the restaurant had these booths which had things like saloon doors at seated face level for privacy if women in abayas wanted to eat there.  as we left people were walking in and out of the mosque next door and with the skinny roads of the neighbourhood it felt really local.

on tuesday we ventured down to abu dhabi with my mum.  she had to go and work out at this school in baniyas, which is a less affluent outer suburb of abu dhabi.  many of the people who live there are bedouins who have been brought in from the desert only in about the last 20-30 years.  despite this being such a place full of money it is crazy that it’s only really been ‘settled’ in the way it is now since oil was discovered in the 60s.  before that - you lived a nomadic life out in the desert with your camel.

the first stop on tourism train for the day was the great mosque.  this is one of the few which allows tourists in and has recently had some work done on it.  it is amazing, huge and pretty much made us both have a pseudo-spiritual moment. i had to wear an abaya and headscarf to go inside which was interesting as well - as soon as i turned around or got separated from darren he could hardly tell where i was. i would definitely be one of the women who has a pattern at the cuffs and on the hem of my headscarf or some other way of changing up a plain abaya - so easy to literally disappear into one.  it was a lot cooler to wear than i expected and this is even with a long sleeved top and kneelength skirt underneath.

after this we basically had time to kill until we were going to swim and relax at the club, a british club/resort place my mum belongs to.  so back to the mall it was and this time mall of the emirates for the rain showers they have there - however, much to my disappointment (and serious disappointment it was) the rain time has changed and we wouldn’t be able to stick around for that long.  i’m still hoping - not very secretly i might add - that there will be a visit to abu dhabi next week where i can be there for the rain and thunder (4.30 and 8.30 now, not every few hours as previously imagined).

when my mum finished work we picked up a few things for the impending arrival of the nephew and niece from ikea (insert usual ‘i wish we had this in nz’ statement here) and then headed over to this fancy homewares store called the one that has a nice cafe in it for some lunch.  late lunch worked a treat and then we headed out to the club.

i wasn’t sure what to expect from the club - glitz or the slightly more dated looking kind of thing there is a lot of here (easy to look dated due to all that sand don’t forget either).  it was the latter but is very well appointed and i would probably want to join if we lived here - it has incredible range of facilities including a private beach, pool, several eating places, rock climbing, gym, tennis courts, sailing… all sorts.  we laid on the beach, swam in both the beach and the pool, read, soaked up sun, ordered drinks on the beach (oh yeah, decadence!) and just enjoyed the heat.  abu dhabi isn’t humid like dubai so it’s really nice, especially as the temperature seemed to have dropped to late 30s.  in the evening we ate out on this kind of rock pier thing and then sadly had to leave and drive back to al ain.

wednesday was the start of our drive up north to check things out.  we headed up to dubai first thing and decided to check out the mall of emirates with ski slope until the major heat of the day was starting to wane and we could check into our hotel.    the ski slope is insane, huge and just so weird right by a food court!  it’s 300 dirhams to go in there (about NZ$140ish)  and it seemed packed.  so far we’ve seen more ice and snow over here than at home - the count is 2 ice rinks and a ski slope so far!

we checked in to the hotel (a nice find, holiday inn express on jumeirah road by the dry docks) and met up with my friend sophie again for coffee at the one.   the one in dubai is much lighter than in abu dhabi so it was nice to have sun filtering through the (tinted) windows.  things are pretty dark here inside most of the time which i find hard to get used to - after all, nz summer means light automatically, right?  the humidity in dubai really gets to me though.  it’s not humid in al ain or abu dhabi.  as soon as we went outside my glasses fogged up.

we had some time to kill before the evening’s entertainment so sophie suggested we head down to souk madinat, which is a shopping mall (surprise, surprise) but in a fort-like building complete with the old style wind chambers for cool air pre-air conditioning.  very nice.  it was on the water and people were catching abra water taxis around it as well but we kept on going and went back to try and catch our dhow dinner cruise.

we basically did the dinner cruise because a friend of my mum’s really recommended it and i think it is worth doing but buyer beware - you get what you pay for!  there were some beautiful lit up dhow boats floating past our weirdly egyptian themed vessel and i don’t think they were getting the egyptian entertainment after dinner that we were - at least it was kind of hilarious, i guess. don’t go for a special price.  go for something more expensive! have tranquility! it is very pretty out on the water and the food was awesome.  after that sophie headed back to sharjah and we went to the hotel.

on sunday mum had to work so darren & i decided to do some touring around al ain. we went and picked up our rental car and got straight into the traffic.  mum lent us her gps, which is a complete saviour.  the voice on it is a british computer voice called derek (at the moment anyway) so we all refer to it as derek.  derek copes very well with us, even when there are detours because the roads are being changed.

there are no street addresses here.  even things like malls and shops don’t have addresses and there are no letter boxes for the houses, so for the car rental place we just told the taxi driver to take us to the lulu centre as it is behind there.  you see signs advertising places and you just have to either get directions (by landmark) or follow the signs. many of the roundabouts in al ain have some kind of feature on them so you can use them like this, i.e. the one next to our place is diamond roundabout and has a short fence with diamond shapes in it.  we have also notably seen sheikh roundabout and i also particularly like water feature roundabout.  apparently there is one called pigeon roundabout which has lots of pigeons - the sheikh pays someone to feed them there all the time so it will be covered in pigeons.

the roundabouts themselves have some interesting rules and as no one indicates here you have to be very vigilant when driving. there is also this system of turning which we have started calling ‘hook turns’ - many of the main streets are set up so that you can do these u-turns at specific places. if you miss the hook turn you just have to drive along another 1-2 km until you find another one.

we went to the al jahali fort which is totally stunning but took a risk of going at 11am - it was already too hot.  by the time we got back to the car (a  very short walk in the scheme of things) we felt fried.

we then went to the al ain museum, which is quite old school (but thankfully beautifully air-conditioned). the security guard confided in us that although “the government said it was 45 degrees” he thought it was over 50.  this seemed a bit weird but mum explained later that the higher temperatures are sometimes discussed quite a bit like that because if it does get to 50 degrees all government employees get the day off - so some feel that it never officially gets to 50!

the al ain museum has a lot of handwritten signs and many which look 70s style.  it definitely doesn’t have the biggest budget!  the best things in the museum were the old black and white photos of al ain and abu dhabi in the 60s, the handwritten korans and an old well which is inside the footprint of the building (but has dried up).

after the sightseeing we headed back to our old friend bawadi mall for some lunch and a spot of shopping.  by the time we headed back to wait for mum to finish lunch we were tired!

in the evening we headed over with mum and her friend to the golf club/resort for a nice dinner. we braved the evening humidity to sit outside and it was well worth it - even just for the view of jebel hafeet roads all lit up at night.