Birds of Tokyo

An Airbnb access issue last night meant we sat out the front of the place in the gutter for an hour with our bags and 7 Eleven noodles. Thankfully we finally made it inside and didn’t have to seek alternate accommodation! But after 24 hours of travel it was not what we needed.

Got woken up at half five by a crow - even though I thought the band Birds of Tokyo was named after the fact that there are no birds in Tokyo. Guess not. I should really stop getting my science facts from Rolling Stone magazine.

Started the day early with a 5km run with Krissi along the Sumida River - hot and humid, but shook out the travel stiffness.

Starbucks coffee immediately after also helped.

A problem with my travel card today - the money hasn’t made it there yet. Hopefully it lands tomorrow or we will have to call the bank….

On the way back to the house, we saw some people lining up outside a random closed door - turns out it’s the famous fluffy pancake place we had planned to go today. Massive coincidence.

And they have some serious Soup Nazi rules - including lining up from 8:30am to get a reservation and paying a 1000 yen deposit per person. Luckily we spoke to a fellow tourist who gave us the info we needed.

Lined up for an hour and got our reservation.

Spent a few hours doing the local temples and shopping in Asakusa which is in the older part of Tokyo. Laneways with small restaurants and bars that hold maybe 10 people max. It’s all very quaint and I’d seen this side of Tokyo on many of the YouTube videos.

The Pancake WAS amazing - although $20 in Japan felt a touch overs (most other meals are under $10). Thankfully it doubled as lunch. I had the pancake with eggs and bacon, Krissi and the kids went the sweet options.

More shopping through the laneways of Asakusa after that.

Ben and I then got changed and caught the train across Tokyo to the Blue Note Jazz Club near Shibuya.

Found the rich part of Tokyo! Everyone there was well dressed and about 20 years younger than the people at Asakusa. It reminded me of the richer areas of Paris, Beverly Hills, NY near Central Park. I could live there...

The performance was genuinely first class - the Alfredo Rodriguez Trio - super professional Cuban Jazz trio - piano, bass and drums. Ended with a phenomenal version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller which had the whole place on its feet. I had a few moments where I had to pinch myself. This was a once in a lifetime experience. All 3 of the musicians were world class - the pianist Alfredo said his mentor is Quincy Jones. So I guess he goes ok.

The venue held maybe 250 people all seated at tables with table service, cocktails, food; the whole works. Was something out of a movie.

After that gig, Ben and I walked a few kms across town to the Billboard Live Tokyo for our second gig of the day - Casiopea P4- which was a a group of geriatric (except the drummer) Japanese musicians playing funky instrumentals with great solos. They did some fun songs and the crowd genuinely loved it (I think they are a bit of an institution in Japan), but the 5 minutes of crowd work every second song was lost on Ben and I given it was entirely in Japanese. It had a bit of a Hey Hey It’s Saturday vibe TBH. It’s a band Ben likes so he was really happy.

Krissi and Clare spent the afternoon and evening travelling around Tokyo eating and shopping. I think so anyway, I’m writing this on the Ginza line on the way home.

Also the toilets in our Airbnb are electric, self flushing, have heated seats and I’m never going back…..

Good first day!

Back to the hotel!Leggi altro