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Warsaw Loo Sunrise
I'm starting this entry (though I may not have time to finish it) at Chopin Airport, Warsaw, where I arrived at 5.30am, just in time for the sunrise. And if I used the toilet shortly after arrival, I'm sure you won't think so little of me as to imagine that I did it purely to justify a Kinks reference in the post title.
This will be a fairly brief entry, perhaps, because my last few days in Tokyo mostly involved meeting friends and eating nice food with them, which was fun for us but may leave you pressing your faces longingly against the computer screen like Victorian waifs looking through the windows of the Ritz, although some other activities got slipped in too.
My lodging for the duration was the Prince Hotel in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, which I chose expressly to gratify the Pokemon love of C and W, for Sunshine City is home to a Pokemon Centre of renown. In the event, they had to make do with pictures of me indulging in all things Pokemonic, although a few little souvenirs may have insinuated themselves into my luggage. Anyway, here's a glimpse for those who share their taste:
The first meal was with Yoshiko and her two daughters, whom I was meeting for the first time, at a very nice washoku restaurant. We had an excellent evening, the only downside (if you can call it that) being that Yoshiko, who'd originally booked the restaurant with C and W in mind as well, forgot to reduce the order, with the result that the already-generous meal was far too large. Still, you can't have too much of a good thing, apparently, because it remained stubbornly delicious.
Still unaccountably slim after the meal
The next day Yoshiko and I went to see an exhibition being held by an old senpai of hers, a history professor who after retirement turned - very successfully - to pottery. Despite my own father having been a potter I don't profess to be a good judge, especially in the land of wabi sabi (when is something just pretending to be crudely rustic and when it just, well, crudely rustic?), but I could see it was very good - and the old gentleman himself, now in his late '80s, was remarkably genki.
Then on to meet Yuki, who last year introduced me to monjayaki and had kindly offered to take me to her favourite restaurant in that line, in Koiwa. Luckily, this gives me a chance to show any monja newbies photographs (which in my excitement I've forgotten to take in the past) of the life cycle of a monjayaki:
The day after that I met up with Satomi and we visited Tokyo Tower, where I'd never been but had long wished to visit, not least because of its prominence in Card Captor Sakura. If you want a picture mixing different cultures (but with a red theme) it's hard to beat the foot of Tokyo Tower (itself of course a rip-off of the Eiffel Tower), koinobori, a London Routemaster bus and a van selling takoyaki. Such is Tokyo.
Then on to Tokyo TeamLabs Planets in Toyosu, not to be confused with Tokyo TeamLabs in Odaiba, which I visited last year. Though, to be fair, there was definitely some similarity. The TeamLabs Planets difference was the (almost literal) immersion involved, which meant that when you were walking through a pond of koi and sakura, you were wading not just though a hologram but actual water, virtually up to the knee. That was a pretty amazing experience, although not easy to photograph, sadly - at least in comparison with the various rooms of lights, lasers and mirrors, and even they were more effective as video. But the crowning glory was the "dejeuner sur instagram" effect conjured by dangled flowers in the final room. Anyway, here's a small selection from a dazzling display:
The next day I left Japan, but not before enjoying some fine dining at Eatrip in Harajuku in the company of Toki - without whom I would never have found this incredibly well hidden garden restaurant in the middle of one of Tokyo's busiest, indeed most frenetic, districts. In return I showed her nearby Alice on Wednesdays, which she'd never visited. Fair exchange is no robbery.
"Japan, once again you have pleased us."
This will be a fairly brief entry, perhaps, because my last few days in Tokyo mostly involved meeting friends and eating nice food with them, which was fun for us but may leave you pressing your faces longingly against the computer screen like Victorian waifs looking through the windows of the Ritz, although some other activities got slipped in too.
My lodging for the duration was the Prince Hotel in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, which I chose expressly to gratify the Pokemon love of C and W, for Sunshine City is home to a Pokemon Centre of renown. In the event, they had to make do with pictures of me indulging in all things Pokemonic, although a few little souvenirs may have insinuated themselves into my luggage. Anyway, here's a glimpse for those who share their taste:
The first meal was with Yoshiko and her two daughters, whom I was meeting for the first time, at a very nice washoku restaurant. We had an excellent evening, the only downside (if you can call it that) being that Yoshiko, who'd originally booked the restaurant with C and W in mind as well, forgot to reduce the order, with the result that the already-generous meal was far too large. Still, you can't have too much of a good thing, apparently, because it remained stubbornly delicious.
Still unaccountably slim after the meal
The next day Yoshiko and I went to see an exhibition being held by an old senpai of hers, a history professor who after retirement turned - very successfully - to pottery. Despite my own father having been a potter I don't profess to be a good judge, especially in the land of wabi sabi (when is something just pretending to be crudely rustic and when it just, well, crudely rustic?), but I could see it was very good - and the old gentleman himself, now in his late '80s, was remarkably genki.
Then on to meet Yuki, who last year introduced me to monjayaki and had kindly offered to take me to her favourite restaurant in that line, in Koiwa. Luckily, this gives me a chance to show any monja newbies photographs (which in my excitement I've forgotten to take in the past) of the life cycle of a monjayaki:
The day after that I met up with Satomi and we visited Tokyo Tower, where I'd never been but had long wished to visit, not least because of its prominence in Card Captor Sakura. If you want a picture mixing different cultures (but with a red theme) it's hard to beat the foot of Tokyo Tower (itself of course a rip-off of the Eiffel Tower), koinobori, a London Routemaster bus and a van selling takoyaki. Such is Tokyo.
Then on to Tokyo TeamLabs Planets in Toyosu, not to be confused with Tokyo TeamLabs in Odaiba, which I visited last year. Though, to be fair, there was definitely some similarity. The TeamLabs Planets difference was the (almost literal) immersion involved, which meant that when you were walking through a pond of koi and sakura, you were wading not just though a hologram but actual water, virtually up to the knee. That was a pretty amazing experience, although not easy to photograph, sadly - at least in comparison with the various rooms of lights, lasers and mirrors, and even they were more effective as video. But the crowning glory was the "dejeuner sur instagram" effect conjured by dangled flowers in the final room. Anyway, here's a small selection from a dazzling display:
The next day I left Japan, but not before enjoying some fine dining at Eatrip in Harajuku in the company of Toki - without whom I would never have found this incredibly well hidden garden restaurant in the middle of one of Tokyo's busiest, indeed most frenetic, districts. In return I showed her nearby Alice on Wednesdays, which she'd never visited. Fair exchange is no robbery.
"Japan, once again you have pleased us."