Today we go on a cycle tour recommended to us by Sarah V. And it was very educational and fun. Neil (our cycle guide) is from Ohio, has been living in Tokyo for ten years, and has owned Tokyo Bicycle Tours for six years. The weather was kind. Here is who was on the tour - with us were three Irishmen who are friends, now living in Sydney (Padraig, Brian and Kevin) - and Neil and us.
Here is where we are going for 5 hours, Neil shows us on a map.
I asked if I could record it. Neil said yes. Yay, as I wouldn't remember all that!
We head off. Neil tells us Yama means hill. We had a slight yama to climb. We pass the motorway we had driven to go to the stadium with Kenji. Cars pay to use this raised motorway, which is four lanes wide (two lanes either side).
This is a facility for wedding ceremonies. It says Daiichi Comm. H.S. on the top of my photo and Arkangel Dakanyama on the building. Note yama (it was at the top of the slight hill).
We pass the blowfish restaurant. Cooks are specially trained in cooking blowfish as if they do it the wrong way it can kill humans. This from a culture trip website:
"Fugu, or Japanese blowfish, has gained quite the lethal reputation around the world thanks to its quick and deadly neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin. This hasn’t stopped people from seeking the delicacy out, however, and fugu has historically commanded high prices as chefs were traditionally required to undergo extensive training to learn how to safely handle and remove the blowfish’s poisonous organs without contaminating the rest of its flesh. Fugu is becoming a much safer option these days, with nontoxic farm-raised varieties and the rise of special facilities that clean and process the fish and distribute it to restaurants risk-free.
The term fugu, meaning “blow,” was the original word for blowfish, and it still goes by that name in some places in Japan such as Yamaguchi prefecture. Here the name has a double-meaning, as fuku is also the word for “luck.”
That must be why people try it. There are seven restaurants like this one in Japan. This is the outside the restaurant. Neil said he has been told the fish is not that tasty. He has not been willing to try it in the ten years he has been here. He also said it is very pricey.
I guess you can choose your fish from the tank.
This is a typical street - tall and narrow houses, restaurants and shops wedged in side by side. Neil says the Japanese build a new home each generation, so every 20-30 years. So while they are economical on space, they don’t occur to me as the world's best sustainable house users.
Also there are very few rubbish bins in the streets. That is because they were used 5 years ago to hide bombs by terrorists. So the authorities removed them all, and the Japanese agreed to take their own rubbish home. (It is like a kindergarten I thought, in a nice way, that everyone complies.)
This is a love hotel. Because houses are so compact, and Japanese do not have much space, couples go to love stays for a night, or even a few hours. This from Savvy Tokyo Website:
"You’re walking along a busy, brightly-lit Tokyo street when you encounter a downright outlandish building with a private entrance and a sign reading “stay” (宿泊, shukuhaku) and “rest” (休憩, kyukei). The building has fancy lettering, typically neon signs (at night the hotel below would light up) and a quirky name like Hotel Oz, Casablanca or Hotel Fooo. By now you realize that you have not encountered a regular hotel — you’re standing in front of a Japanese rabuho, the not-so-hidden pay-by-the-hour (or night) pleasure accommodations for couples, secret lovers, and other forms of a one-time celebration of love."
"A rest or short stay can be anywhere from 2-4 hours and cost between ¥2,900-¥7,000 depending on the date and hotel, while a stay (typically overnight to 9 or 10 am), can cost anywhere from ¥3,900 to well over ¥20,000. Any room service items or meals that you order can add to these prices as well."
Here are the prices of another in the street.
And of course there was a shrine in the middle of it all! (The shrine was here first Neil said.)
We head to Shibuya Crossing. From Times:
"It would be a shame to come to Tokyo and not take a walk across the famous intersection outside Shibuya Station. On sunny afternoons or clear evenings, the surrounding area is packed with shoppers, students, young couples and commuters. When the lights turn red at this busy junction, they all turn red at the same time in every direction. Traffic stops completely and pedestrians surge into the intersection from all sides, like marbles spilling out of a box."
There was here also the story of the dog at the crossing - Hachikō. This dog came to Shibuya Station every day to meet his master, a professor, returning from work. After the professor died in 1925, Hachikō continued to come to the station daily until his own death nearly 10 years later.
So they built a statue in his honour near the crossing. There was a queue of 50 tourists waiting to get their photo taken there. I could not wait that long. In between tourists changing places, I saw a window and got this photo.
A photo of the crossing in 1920. I saw it when I went to the loo in Starbucks. (Too much information, Ed.)
Then we cycled on - to Yoyogi Park. Lots of crows everywhere in Tokyo. This is obviously their drinking hole.
From Wikipedia: "Yoyogi Park stands on the site from where the first successful powered aircraft flight in Japan took place by Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa on 19 December 1910. The area later became an army parade ground. From September 1945, the site housed the military barracks known as the "Washington Heights" for U.S. officers during the Allied occupation of Japan. In 1964, the area was used for the Tokyo Olympics housing the main Olympic village and the Yoyogi National Gymnasium. In 1967 most of the area north of the gymnasium complex and south of Meiji Shrine was turned into Yoyogi Park."
Then it was on to Meiji Shrine and this time we saw a wedding. That's the groom on the left at the front with the ponytail - it was quite a hipster group. Note the bride's horns of jealousy.
Then on to the 'Teenage street" (Jingumae). One amazing thing about Japan is you don’t have to lock your bike! So we parked the bikes and took a walk down this street.
Note the teenagers.
The pop idol shop.
Then yum, a crepe. Brian at the counter, and Bill has ordered and is patiently waiting for ours.
Off past the Olympic stadium, newly built for next year's Olympics.
There was controversy over the building of the stadium. This from www.dezeen.com:
"Building work began on Kengo Kuma's National Stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2015 – the design that was controversially selected to replace Zaha Hadid's competition-winning scheme. That design that was going to cost 300 billion yen to build. Having begun the stadium build in 2015, it was stopped and a ground-breaking ceremony for the latticed timber stadium was held on 11 December 2016. A ¥149 billion (£1.1 billion) structure was redesigned and completed in time to host the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Seating stands will be sheltered below the latticed larch and steel canopy, and circulation areas around the edge of each level will feature plants and trees, to respect the surrounding park."
And an inside view.
My shot of the outside.
Then to the baseball stadium. Baseball is Japan's number one sport. Daisuke is a baseball hero.
Neil had played bit of baseball. We all had a bat. This is Bill in action. He was quite good.
Bill and I outside the baseball nets, and Brian liked to be in photos too. Ok Brian.
We let him come closer. Ok Brian.
A golf driving range I spotted, three stories high.
I biked at the end of the group getting photos, and Brian was always the one in front of me - he was struggling with keeping up I feel.
This looked like a nice cafe to come back to (the Garden Cafe.)
On through the Aoyama cemetery (note the yama, we went up a slight hill again). Note Brian.
Here is another cemetery shot and Brian again.
There were foreigners' graves here too. The Japanese pay for their plot. If they can't afford it's upkeep, it gets offered to another family. The government looks after the foreigners' graves.
I spotted this new build about to happen. Amazing use of space. This will be an interesting house on this small irregular section. Luckily for the Japanese they are more my size and not Bill's.
We got off our bikes again and walked by the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills. Note the raised motorway again. Neil, tour leader, is leading us.
Mori Art Museum entrance.
Brian in front of the Spider Sculpture. I had got to know Brian better by this time. He has been married three times and is a plumber in Sydney.
From Wikipedia: " Roppongi Hills cost over $4 billion and is built on a 27-acre (109,000 m²) site. The site amalgamated more than 400 smaller lots Mori acquired over 14 years. Mori Tower is a 54-story high-rise building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox that houses an art museum, restaurants, cafes, clinics, stores, the offices of Allen & Overy, Barclays Capital, Ferrari Japan, Goldman Sachs, J-WAVE, Konami, Time Inc., Chevron, BASF, Lenovo, Mercari, Baidu, GREE, BP, SAS Institute and Google. The Pokémon Company has its headquarters in the Mori Tower. The first six levels of Mori Tower contain retail stores and restaurants. The top six floors house the Mori Art Museum and the Tokyo City View with panoramic views of the city.
This is a view of the tower from afar (from TripAdvisor).
And from the observation deck (TripAdvisor).
Then we cycled downhill for the last part, back to Neil's garage where we started. After 5 hours cycling, which was so much fun, we went back and had a quiet dinner with Annette and Neal in our hood.