JAPAN
I was particularly excited about those fancy squirting toilets and enjoying some Japanese-style karaoke
I
’m not usually a superstitious person, but that all changed as I stood shaking a tin can of bamboo sticks and waited
for one to fall out. I’m nervous about what’s about to happen next. Our Inside Japan guide Matsuko tells me that receiving a good fortune at Tokyo’s Senso-ji Temple will ensure I have a positive experience in Japan. And, of course, I haven’t travelled 12 hours and a quarter of the way around the world for a bad experience, so I’m willing a positive fortune to come my way. Just in case it all goes wrong, my guide explains that a bad fortune isn’t actually the end of the world because I can tie the piece of paper to a wall in the temple and leave my bad luck there. My stick is number 21. My guide shrieks with excitement, and for a second, I feel as if I’ve won the lottery. Hurrah, a good fortune and the holiday is saved! It’s here, in the district of Asakusa which is home to Senso-ji Temple, a pagoda and a Shinto shrine, that my love story with Japan begins. The area reflects the more traditional side of Tokyo, and it’s also where my guide Matsuko decides that she wants me to feel as at home as
76 — aspire september 2015
possible, and so asks to be known as my ‘Japanese mother’. I oblige, of course. Our next stop is the Tsukiji morning market. If something has ever graced the seven seas, you’re bound to find it here – from tuna and octopus to giant crabs and even controversial whale meat and blubber. The market isn’t open to the public until the morning fish auction finishes at 9am. From then till about 11am, it’s a hive of activity, with locals food shopping and tourists swarming to sample some of the freshest cuisine in Japan. My expectations of Japan were high
– it’s a country I’ve always wanted to visit and I was desperate to sample the crazy lifestyle I’d heard all about. I was particularly excited about those fancy
squirting toilets (which are fabulous, by the way) and enjoying some Japanese-style karaoke.
The craziness was provided by
venturing into some of Tokyo’s trendier areas: Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku and ‘electric city’ Akihabara. Each area is an assault on the senses, crammed full with neon twinkling lights, robotic voices, women dressed as French maids or schoolgirls, and almost no written English. I was hooked (despite a strange experience where a maid force-fed me my breakfast one morning). Shinjuku was my favourite district – it’s where locals and tourists let loose and bond over some sake and a karaoke session. Recommend clients head to the Golden
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