Ueno Zoo and Old Tokyo

We've spent the last two days visiting 'Old Tokyo' – not too far from where we are staying, a little more traditional and a lot more wandering on foot. 

We've had 48 hours of the Demon Toddler from Hell (who may or may not have just birthed a gigantic molar with more on the way... ), who's favourite activities include waking several times in the night, getting up at 5am, throwing shit, screaming, and generally being totally demented at all times. Needless to say, a tiny space, more sugar, less interaction with other demon toddlers from hell probably doesn't help. Despite those factors, we've had a great* couple of days adventuring the city! 

*I'm so fucking tired. I'll say anything. But it really has been fun. If I just blank out the parts I don't like.

Oh I'm sorry, are you very tired from NEVER SLEEPING?! I guess we're not winning parents of the year. In this shot alone the kid has his own iPhone and a toilet roll for company. Don't even get me started on the posture. 

We do not underestimate the beauty of open spaces here. This looks innocent enough, however the closer we get to the fountain, the closer monkey gets to the fountain (the toy, not the boy). Yep, little shit threw him in. You probably can't tell from here, but that fountain has to be about 50 metres long and about 10 metres wide. Kent pulled some impressive ninja moves to rescue that one, more due the potential shame of littering than Viv losing his beloved monkey.

Viv meets Ri Ri. Or the other one ... Shin Shin? I don't think I've seen a panda in real life, so that was fun. 

Yesterday I took Viv to Ueno Zoo – the oldest zoo in Japan (born in the late 1800s from memory). Also quite possibly the saddest. It gave me new appreciation for Melbourne Zoo and the amazing habitats that have been created for the inmates (and why it costs you a month's salary to get in). The zoo here is delightfully accessible, affordable (about $7 for me, free for Viv), and small. Sorry animals. It was a real treat for Viv who for much of this trip has needed to be strapped into his stroller for his safety (and those around him). He was able to direct which way he wanted to go when, and walk around unimpeded. I thought it would turn him into a nicer person, but I was wrong. 

How do you explain to a two year old that these guys are likely to be extinct in his life time? I can't decide what's worse, their extinction, or keeping them alive to live on shabby 1950s style film sets like this. Look at the guy, he's so miserable.

Viv waits for Mr Polar Bear to go for a swim. Sorry dude, the apathy is strong in this one. 

There is only so many empty animal pens I can handle, so we trained back to Asakusa (near where we are staying) to wander home through the old town. Very touristy, but fun. Weird post boxes prevail, and we spend most of the walk calling out 'where are you eggie man?!' in the hope of seeing another one of these characters. 

Totally undeserved, but necessary – snazzy new shoes! To be fair, the child might be being an arsehole due to his shoes being too small. Mean parent makes him carry his old shoes all the way home.

I'm sorry lady, you probably didn't need me photographing you, but I think I did a pretty good job furrowing my brow and staring fixedly to the sign behind you to make it seem like I wasn't. 

The struggle is real, but tomorrow is a new day. 

Today took us to Yanaka, with the idea to see a particular gallery (you can see more about that on Kent's blog thesubmachine.net – seriously, it's so good. So many art reviews already, and no doubt his review on today's adventure is already up), as well as have a general wander. Yanaka has officially stolen my heart with it's winding streets, lack of high-rises and tiny little cafes and interesting windows tucked in lots of corners. Vivian really did pull a few numbers on us (we really need to start taking him home for naps again), so it prevented too many adventures, but we'll be back. This part of Tokyo has a little bit of a Kyoto feel about it: a little older and wiser somehow.

Today I died and went to cafe heaven in Yanaka. A rare quiet moment with the fellas in this beautiful space in Kayaba Coffee. No seats available downstairs, so off came the shoes for traditional Japanese style dining upstairs on the tatami mats. Definitely a space for a quiet read (with a lovely art book library to help yourself at), I am sorry to the other patrons for bringing my two year old with me.

Greed got in the way of a better photo. One of my favourite dining experiences in Japan is the 'Morning Set' – in this case with your coffee you can order toast or a sandwich variety. Mine was egg toast – for an extra ¥300 (about $3.50) I got myself fat toast with scrambled egg, salad and soup. Kent's sandwich was 'ham' – which I will now be fantastising about until we go back, as it was cheese, salad, mustard and bacon with the crusts cut off – standard with sandwiches here. 

Contemplating the sunshine.

How the waitresses got up and down these stairs (read: ladder) in their socks with our orders is beyond me.

Pregnant woman is nervous. FYI that handrail? Not quite as attached as you would hope. I'm pretty sure I'm not responsible for that crumbing plaster ... 

I like to photograph Kent in these communal spaces to help people understand the size of them. This is the foot of the stairs where we took our shoes on and off.

What? I REALLY liked this cafe! 

Possibly Tokyo's happiest milk bar.

Obligatory playground stop. I love the extreme lack of OHS standards in these playgrounds. Viv took an amazing topple off one of these steps and nearly fell all the way to the ground.  

I get excited when he has to share/navigate playground politics with other children. 

Beautifully considered shop in Yanaka selling simple yet fancy homewares. I may have left with some important socks.

May I never forget this bakery as long as I live. Found in a small cluster of traditional dwellings, Kayaba bakery (an offshoot of Kayaba Coffee down the road) is in my forever list. Flavours I never would have dreamed of, the perfect balance of sweet and heavenly – Vanilla bean custard-filled milky bread bun of happiness, lemon curd toast of surprising joy, ugly wonderland of gorganzola, fig and walnut filled roll. I still can't quite believe I shared these items with my family. But I did. I did. It is worth (and probably necessary) the 4 kilometre round trip on foot to get to this little nook of ecstasy.

Peeking through a window in this amazing group of houses. 

The side streets of Yanaka. I do wonder what kind of car is in there, and whether it ever comes up for air – it appeared to be sinking into the underbrush...

Back in Asakusa, the back streets near our apartment. There should be a rule about letting pregnant women into spaces like this. I'm still confused – was it a trap? The proprietor gestured and encouraged me in here. I couldn't even turn around to go back out. 

We were blessed with 15 degrees and sunshine today – as you can probably tell, the less time the small human spends in the apartment the better for us, so we hung out here for about an hour before heading home in an effort to run him out. He's preeeeeeeeetty fucking tired. You know you're in trouble when you look at the time and think 'Ok, it's 3pm, so I'll go home, cook dinner, give him a bath ... and he can be in bed by ... 4.30 ... hmm.' 

Delirious but happy. That's all you could really ask for I suppose!

Another night of terrible pre-bed behaviour ends with being sent to his room to 'read' quietly by himself until we fetch him. Yet again, it results in passing out on top of the books with the light still on.

One of the main challenges of being here is that Viv is used to a 1.5-3 hour sleep every day after lunch. Given our location, that often is skipped so that we can visit other areas of the city, which is fine – though our hopes for him sleeping in the stroller have been dashed. We've found that he still needs to come home every couple of days for a day sleep (much to his protests, and mine), just to catch up. I hope we haven't stunted his growth too much by skipping too many ... Tomorrow Kent has a very busy working day, so Viv and I plan on staying close to home to get a nap in and catch up on some sleep, where I will dream of custard buns and fig and gorgonzola rolls. Oh my god. This baby is going to be fucking massive.


xox
Lj.

Galleries and sunshine

Another couple of sunny and cold days for us in Tokyo. The last few days have sent us exploring in Hiroo, Omotesando and Ginza. As Kent's weekends are often from Monday-Wednesday here, we generally make those our family fun days and pick an area of Tokyo that looks halfway interesting and go for an adventure – also known as 'Boken' in  Japanese (or, simply 'adventure' with a Japanese accent. There's a lot of adoption of English words here!).

Like my last post, I've snagged a few of Kent's images, so things are a little out of order.

Another example of simple, beautiful entrance-ways in this city.

Visiting Hiroo, which ended up being a little bit boring. Sure, the Bokun MAY have revolved around visiting this chip-specialist shop, so we probably should have expected to be disappointed. It's one of the few things that aren't done better in Japan! This photo is a total farce too – Viv was being a little ass-hat, but it was a nice window view. I'm still angry at him for eating the single pickle that came with our fries. 

Just another incredible sight in the heart of Hiroo.

Our plan for family shopping in Omotesando yesterday was cut short by a very poorly little boy who had to be taken home for some rest. We managed to get ourselves to a über cool coffee shop (one of the owners is half of Daft Punk) and then to the organic restaurant for lunch, which was highly stressful due to it being incredibly busy and watching the face of my child like a hawk, who looked like he was almost certainly going to vomit everywhere. Happily for me, he did not vomit, and it only takes one parent to administer panadol, so I spent the afternoon walking into bustling Shibuya (and promptly scurrying out again as quickly as my preggo hips could carry me) while Kent took one for the team. It is possible that most of Kent's grant money has gone toward my weight in washi tape (beautiful japanese patterned paper adhesive tape for the uninitiated – you can buy it in Australia for about 3 times the price and a tenth of the variety) so can spend the rest of the trip rolling around on the futon tossing my mini rolls of tape in the air with glee. 

Fortunately for Kent's grant, the chances of me accidentally going on a shopping spree are slim, due to the fact that I am starting to resemble a very adorable baby hippo.

You know how upmarket and trendy some of the cafes are when they visibly balk at the sight of your approach with a toddler in a stroller. I don't care that their coffee was $6.50 – it was worth it just to look at their stunning wallpaper. 

Sad little sleepy child. 

It's hard to believe that this is the back streets of very upmarket Omotesando.

A very dull image only used to highlight yet again the amazing binary nature of Japanese culture – this shabby little grocery store was next door to Vivienne Westwood, where I had only moments before been lovingly caressing $1000 pants. Again, it's probably a good thing I'm pregnant. I don't have much self control here. 

A revisit to one of our favourite stores in Omotesando, with the customary portrait at the end of your visit. My attempt at jauntily covering my belly with my shopping went really well don't you think? I am hoarding yet another collection of beautiful ceramic work along with my sack of washi tape.

Most nights I wrangle together a weird concoction of basic vegetable soup/stew and stir fried veg in our irritating little kitchen. So last night it was a great treat to venture out to a highly recommended okonomiyaki restaurant, only to discover it was closed. Feeling exhilarated by my afternoon to myself, we boldly tried this place instead – we could see right inside, it was empty, looked warm and comfortable and I couldn't see any fishtanks (usually a sign of what's for dinner). The menu was entirely in Japanese. After google translating hamburger variety #5 (cheeseburger with bacon, yes that would be amazing), the owner shuffled up with some English menus. Boom. Mum, dad, I'm sorry to rub it in your face, but these burgers were INCREDIBLE. Despite being the only customers, it was a one man show and a bit of a wait – but whenever I glanced over at the chef, he was working with the utmost care idiosyncratic to the Japanese culture: a careful sprinkling here, gentle stirring there, small drizzle over here. 

About halfway through our meal, he approached us with a little bag of rolls, and gestured to outside – he'd run out of bread and needed to nip out for some more. So the three of us were left to enjoy our meals, alone in his restaurant.  

Pretty much our only hint at what was for dinner last night ...

The softest, sweetest milk bread you can imagine. Pickles all to myself. The pizza in the back ground that Viv didn't touch – FOOL. It was the most elaborate margarita I've ever had, and delicious. We demolished the salad before I could take a picture. 

Obligatory out the front shot. 

Feeling perkier today.

Today's venture was all about Ginza. The poshest area of Tokyo (as far as I know), with a lot of galleries and the most insane toyshop in Japan. I know I said that about the last one, but this one also is quite mental. Viv did amazingly well in such a crazy place. Despite being allowed to pick a toy to take home, I don't think he quite understood what that meant, so we left empty handed – probably not a bad thing – but not before he'd picked up several plush toys, kissed them and stated 'I love you penguin.' Or 'I love you cat.' I am a little disappointed that he showed little interest in their incredible selection of the weirdest plush sea creatures I've ever seen, but hey, we've still got a few weeks.

The rest of the day was spent gallery hopping – a few images below of some of the shows we saw. I missed the first one shown while trying to coax some sushi into Viv, but it was amazing to see some art at last!  

Amazing pencil drawings by Kohei Sekigawa at Guardian Garden. I was sorry to miss this one, but even seeing the poster out the front was lovely.

We're trying not to get overexcited by the CHERRY BLOSSOMS BLOOMING IN FUCKING JANUARY. But we are – it's exciting and special and reminds us that the sun is out even when we're freezing our buttocks off. 

Tomohiro Kano and Yoshiki Kojiro.

We all loved this show. We only discovered tonight that this exhibition was in fact two glass artists (yes, it's all glass!). It was on the 7th floor of an unassuming office building, in a pretty dingy space, with staff members to match. However it was fantastic seeing a show with Viv where he understood that 'Only dad is allowed to go near the artwork, you need to be strapped in the stroller.' It was an excellent excuse for me to sit on the floor with him and chat about the show, which he was very vocal about. 

'This one is like a swirly slide. Yes. I should like have a turn on it.'

'Um. I think you're too big.'

'Oh. Why?'

'Because you're a boy and that is about a foot tall. ... So what do you think of that one?'

'It's like a Binjobbie.'

'... A Binjobbie. Hey Kent, Viv says that one's a Binjobbie.'

'No! It's a Bluebinjadgee!' 

Another highlight of this show was catching Kent smell one of the sculptures. When I asked him if he was smelling it he replied, 'Yeah. I thought it had a smell.' I didn't have the heart to tell him that I had just farted and walked away. 

On our way back down in the universe's tiniest elevator.

Another sample of tiny spaces between large ones.

Because I'm immature like that. 

Back on Kappabashi street near 'home' – I still can't get my head around the insane level of utensils in this street. For example I have spent the last 12 months looking for a half size cake pan, so I can make mini cakes that aren't quite muffins/cupcake size. It turns out I can have every single size you could possibly dream of here. How many cake tins can one fit in a suitcase though? (At this stage, just quietly, already four. And I still have about 3 weeks to go, and I walk down this street every damn day.) 

Because nothing says 'I love you' more than a plastic display of KFC and what looks like a gigantic plate of sick. We're talking about a 50cm diameter here.

More cherry blossoms outside someone's home.

You may remember me gushing about Omotesando Koffee from our last trip – a truly sublime experience in the back of an old house in the streets of Omotesando, with a tiny Japanese courtyard and a single bench to sit on, if you were lucky. Sadly, that venture has now closed, and popped up HERE of all places, as Toronamon Koffee, in, you guessed it, Toronamon. Or more specifically, Toronamon Hills. Another Mori tower in the middle of the city. Empty, vast open spaces, security barriers, mirrors, lifts, tiles. Clinical and sterile and also oddly enjoyable. 

The branding is still the same, the coffee still delicious. The vibe is dead, but the novelty is still high as instead of a 'custard square', which they were so well known for, they had several varieties of teeny tiny cakes (including the custard square). But how could I go past the 'Financier's Cube'? I'm NOT EVEN JOKING. That's what it was called.

Little dude is stoked to be able to get up and down by himself now. 

Just a businessman hanging out. This park was actually really cool – it used to be an elementary school. It also had little pommel-horse benches with bars to do your lunch break gymnastics and such.

Another great show at the Ginza Graphic Gallery by Masayoshi Nakajo. The top floor was his series about 'Mothers and Others' and downstairs was 'Imbibing and Vomiting.' – all terms I could get on board with.

Masayoshi's Nakajo on the basement level. Amazing set up. Some more commentary from Viv:

'What does this one look like Viv?'
'It's like a steamies!'
'And this one?'
'It's like a, like a SHAPE.' 

Totally knackered, back in our local haunt February Cafe for hot chocolates before one last playground and a supermarket run. The toast is bloody addictive here – milky-sweet and devastating to your digestive system. I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible, because it is like a bag of potato chips – as soon as it's in your mouth it's gone and you feel terribly sad and want eleven more. I do miss proper sourdough, but am also enjoying my attitude of 'OH WELL, when in Rome!' (I am eating buttered white toast as I write this. Don't forget the days are long and I CAN'T DRINK.) That's Kent holding his jug of sugar syrup for the toast. Which he promptly put in his hot chocolate. 

After my last noodle slop disaster, I'm determined to not have sad dinners, though you know you're in trouble when even Kent won't eat the noodles. Given the space/ingredient constrictions, it's almost easier to make a series of little dishes. Or in the case of some of the dishes above, buy them already made, thank you Japanese supermarket! Many cooked meat options are available like tempura, katsu and yakitori at the local supermarkets, and I feel it would be idiotic to not take advantage. The quality is generally very good and turnover high, so you know you're getting (relatively) fresh stuff. 

And now for some sleep in preparation to take the little dude to the Zoo tomorrow. Stay tuned.

xox
Lj.