So, I travelled alone again, to Tokyo. This trip almost got cancelled as I recovered from hand-food-mouth disease and considered focusing on work. I stayed rational at the end: resorted to playing hard. I’m glad I chose to do that.
Instead of sharing what I did in this trip, I’m going to share some insights from this trip. A lot of them are photography-related because I just love photography. But they somehow apply even if you’re not a photographer.
1) Try to blend into the locals. This doesn’t work when you’re travelling in Europe or in South America for obvious reasons, but in Japan, it works. Don’t wear a backpack, and don’t use a camera neck-strap. I even bought a long transparent umbrella as most Japaneses carry with them in the rain. This way, people always thought I’m a local and spoke Japanese to me before I spoke in English. This is advantageous when you take stealthy street photos.
2) Slow down. Don’t rush in one location and go to another due to time constraints. It’d be even more stupid if you rush even when you have no time constraints. That’s exactly what I did in Singapore and Taipei. Having learnt from that, or perhaps because Japan was a much more interesting place to visit, I succeeded slowing down myself. Do things slowly and I’m sure you’ll experience something unexpected.
3) Do research. Some places just close at the most unexpected times. Most restaurants in Taipei close on Mondays, for instance. And most importantly, Tsukiji Market closes on a certain days. I’m sure most of you know this better than I do as you travel so often.
4) Speaking of Tsukiji market, I have to make one thing very clear. The most famous ones, or the “Big Two” as I call: Sushi Big (壽司大) and Big Equal (大和), are good enough. But is it worth it waiting for four hours for Sushi Big? Think about your experience at Tokichi (中村籐吉) and you’ll know. Besides, from my experience the best one In Tsukiji is not Big Equal (I’ve never been to Sushi Big so I have no idea about that); it’s a less famous one called Chi Man (鮨文). I visited there once two years ago. When I came back this year, I decided to try Big Equal. But I was so regretted about my decision I went to Tsukiji again the next day and had Chi Man. Oh btw, have I mentioned I arrived at Tsukiji at 6-7 am for two consecutive days? This was kinda crazy considering my age, but I loved it.
5) Try those fancy sushi places in Ginza. I’m not talking about 梅登利… From the very early stage planing this trip I decided to spend a fortune at those Michelin-starred sushi bars in Ginza. This was in fact inspired by Shinzo Abe taking Barack Obama to Ginza’s Sukiyabashi Jiro. Of course I couldn’t afford that, and it required booking months in advance. At the end I shortlisted some: Sushi Kanesaka (2-star), Sushi Iwa (1-star), and Kyubey (久兵衛, 1-star), and visited Kyubey. It was good enough, and lunch there was quite a bargain. I spent only ¥8400 for an omakase set. You only eat moderately good sushi for this price in HK; but in Japan, this was already top quality by HK’s standard. Of course in Japan, they could reach even higher standards as prices go up.
