PLANES, BTS, UFO CHICKEN & BEAUTY , Must be Shin-Okubo

 

We made our first error in planning today. We needed an early morning transfer from our home in Northampton to London Heathrow, and I planned this in advance with a local Taxi company. Sadly the car that arrived to take us on our 1.6 hour journey south was very small and very old. Please take note that if you are booking a taxi you will need to upgrade to a mini-bus, Whilst we travelled light compared to what BA said we could take (2x22kg) the car did not have the space so we had our first venture into sitting on top of each other rather early on. We did however note this for our return pick up.

That being said we arrived in plenty of time to check in, relax and also indulge in the age old tradition of a Weatherspoons breakfast with an alcoholic beverage for courage. At 9.50am we were comfortably aboard our plane bound for Tokyo. I have not travelled this level of long haul for a very long time and I was so pleased with the journey out. We were on a Boeing-787 in economy and we had plenty of entertainment supplied to us, our first meal arrived around an hour after we took of with an early lunch of Chicken Teriyaki which was divine alongside my first bottle of wine.

We then settled in to a bevvy of films, some crosswords and then a breakfast before we landed to the gorgeous view of a beautiful Mount Fuji peaking above the clouds to welcome us after 13 hours of flying which was surprisingly very smooth (may have been the booze).

Now, time to take notes. When you arrive in Tokyo you will need to clear Japanese customs and this is done in two stages. The first stage is to provide them with your fingerprint, photo and retina scan. This is all very easy and very fast as they have multiple desks. The second can be taken care of before you leave by visiting Visit Japan Web , This will dramatically cut down your queuing time.

When we cleared customs in a very quick motion we found our bags and a little man who was catching them on the conveyor so they didn't get damaged, TAKE NOTE LONDON. Grabbing our bags we left the arrivals and was greeted by Akimitsu and a huge smile, his hands holding our names on a piece of white card. He insisted on taking all three of our suitcases and motioned us towards the car park where we caught our first whiff of Japanese air and the comfortable leather seats of a Japanese mini bus. We were told it would take an hour to get from the airport to our hotel but on this clear Tokyo morning at 8am we did it in 35 minutes along the bay-side and neighbourhoods. Arriving at our airport we easily found the elevator and made our way to reception where we were greeted by our family for 11 days and also our waiting WiFi router. As rooms were not able to be checked in until later we did have good news that one was ready so that we could shower, change and store our bags until the second was clear. We naturally did this, took in the amazing view from the room and marvelled at the heated toilet seat in the bathroom.

With the map in hand provided to us by the hotel we made our way to the basement as today's goal was to stay awake! To do this I planned for us to take in the delights of Shin-Okubo (Little Seoul to tourists) but before we did anything we stumbled across the truly superb Family Mart in our hotel basement.

This was the moment we had all been waiting for, the moment to try the truly awesome sandwich hybrid of greatness that is all over social media. A Family Mart Egg Sando and a piece of Famichicken are a match made in heaven and I will never have a sandwich like this again, this was the food that was a regular if not daily activity for us. Japanese convenience stores are above everything else, you can grab pastries, cakes, desserts, full meals, sandwiches and drinks both hot and cold, Alcoholic beverages like high ball and coke or soda in a can along with draft beer or sake are all there for you to choose from. The best part is by the counter there is a host of hot foods you can grab from Teriyaki, Buns and of course the world famous fried chicken. They even serve buns and mayo for you to make a burger should you wish and when the weather is cold you grab a hot honey and lemonade from the shelves to keep you going! if this has wet your appetite please check our Samurai Junjiro on You tube as they tell you all you need to know!

After we were delighted that people on the internet were not lying about how fantastic this combo was, we made our way into the train stations and on to our destination. We jumped on the Oedo Line to Yoyogi Station and then changed to the JR Yamanote line which took us all the way to Shin-Okubo. Today we bought a train ticket for 280 YEN (£1.46) and transferred in-between (See previous post). It took us around 45 minutes and we were in Shin-Okubo which is the home to all things Korean.

Now, I hear what you are saying. Why go all the way to Japan and the first thing you do is go to the Korean Section of Tokyo? Well its very simple. Korea is very dear to me, I spent many years there and whilst I may not be with my family back in Seoul this is the closest we are to it so we are doing it! Also, I'm not going to lie I'm a huge BTS fan and needed to get the MERCH! It didn't take us long to find the fried chicken sellers, the beauty parlours and the BTS goodies. Whilst I was talked down from buying THE most amazing BTS alarm clock (grrr I still regret it)  I did grab some pin badges, eye masks, skin creams and face cloths and other things that no one wants to know about!

We then started to tag at the Jet Lag bandages and after a few hours perusing the amazing shops we needed feeding and we headed to a little backstreet guided by the smoky wafts of garlic, onion and ginger. Taking us to one door on Ikemen Street that we picked up on during one of our many Tokyo walks that shared plenty of Korean BBQ joints for you to choose from and we opted for the one with the UFO chicken up for grabs. For anyone unfamiliar to this term UFO chicken is a circle of various fried chicken (spicy, medium, flavoured) around a bubbling pot of grated cheeses! we ordered a few High Balls of the largest standard with a seafood Paejoen (or two) on the side and spent the next few hours letting it sink in that we finally made it.

To say this was one of the happiest moments of my life is an understatement. I had spent so many years of my youth in East Asia and to sit here with my Son was a dream come true for me. To see him take it all in, love it and throw himself into the experience is more then I could ask for from this trip and we were only on our first afternoon. We stopped at every corner and looked into every avenue of good food and enjoyed the complete change of pace. The buying of tickets at a vending machine to purchase food at a nearby restaurant, the coffee art, the bakeries and the rows and rows of skin care (OK so i was the only one excited by this). The sisterhood of women conveying upon shops that had the cure for saggy eye lids, perky cheeks, inadequate porcelain like jaw lines and the absolute cure for happy eyes of a morning was internationally welcomed along with the bath salts for fatigue overflowing from my bags.

As we tucked into our second seafood pancake and pint of whisky and soda we thought that it was possibly best to head back to the hotel, which we did. When we arrived our room was still not ready but as my son retired purely shattered we decided to park up a the tables by the windows and take in the glow of a retiring day in the distance. It was around 4pm by now and the sun was going to be retiring soon but we slunk down and made use of the amazing coin operated bar that was in our reception, the perfect tilt on a pint of beer for 1000 Yen.

We were told shortly after that our room was ready and our bags were transferred to the room; it didn't take long for us to collapse and break our jet lag rule which meant I was awake at 2am.  My gosh was it worth it. The sights that greeted me when I eagerly peeled back the curtain to see the lights of Shimbashi at night raging into life before me meant that I had no choice but to wake my husband up and insist we go out into these beckoning lights. 

We walked for a while eyes up and open mouthed to the city that was still very much awake, noses and tummy's alert to the smells that were pumping out of the bars, Izakayas and cafes. 

We found that we were nervous, nervous to peel back the curtain and disappear through the rabbit hole into the unknown nightlife of Tokyo; but in the end we gathered up the courage to peep through the

Hamakura style door of  'Shimbashi Guard Shita Yokocho' and use the international hand sign for "two people?" 

Our bravery was rewarded with a wondrous smiley face peering over a grill and pointing to a nearby set of seats made from crates turned on their side. Our greeter later reappeared by our side and pointed at a menu tucked behind a bottle of sake and google translate told us what delights we could choose from. As we were still full from our Okubo adventures we opted for two Highballs (even bigger then we had earlier) and some random items.

We dined on a small salad of crab meat on egg mayo followed by a bevy of fried foods including Sardine (not seahorse, you know who you are). One of the chefs came over to join us and ask us where we were from and if it was our first trip, he kept us busy with tails of his home town and we ordered more Highballs with coke until we thought we better get back to sleep to survive tomorrow.

And of we went, back into the Tokyo night with huge smiles on our faces from our first day which was even more awesome then we could imagine. What on earth could possibly top today i wondered...i don't know, possibly Harajuku and Meiji Jingu Temple tomorrow??

Lis x