Japan 2019 - Part 1: Tokyo

The speckled beauty of a goldfish swimming in a window display in Tokyo

Last year our little family embarked on a holiday to Japan. For my husband and I this is a place we both love and it was place we felt comfortable taking our child. The area would be familiar, we knew our way around and we also knew we would easily find food that he would enjoy eating. Taking advantage of some low airfare deals we settled on a trip in late May squeezed in after Mother’s Day and before my birthday in early June.

Scenes from our hotel, Omo 5 in Otsuka where vol-a-vents were the centrepiece of each breakfast offering.

We kicked off our trip with 5 nights in Tokyo, finding good accomodation in Tokyo is something of a challenge and with a small 5-year old with us we weren’t sure we were up for the longer walks every day to get to our usual favourite hotel - Claska over in Naka Meguro. Instead I managed to find somewhere new to try - Omo 5 in the northern suburb area of Otsuka. Away from the usual tourist hot spots it was however very close to the all important Yamanote circle line so offered a level of convenience we needed for this particular trip. We weren’t at all disappointed with our choice - the room was small but perfectly designed to make the most of the space and when every little design detail is carefully considered it felt so much grander then other more expensive places we stayed at later on in the trip. We opted for a family room which has a wide spacious double bed space that amply fitted the three of us in on a “bunk” level above the large l-shaped lounge (which doubles as a sofa bed for larger families). Our little family settled in very well here, Aiden loved the fun vibe of the bunk bed setting and we all enjoyed lounging on the daybed below to bring back our cakes and treats. Arriving late at night our first meal in Japan consisted of onigri rice balls, sushi and cheesecake picked up at the train station and eaten in our room. The cheesecake was immediately declared the best we had ever eaten and it surpassed the already high bar set on the previous trip.

The Hokkaido Cheese Fondue Cake which is now our all-time favourite cheesecake. This is one seriously good cheesecake - barely set it is creamy goodness.

The other advantage of our area we discovered was that we weren’t going to be short of good places to eat dinner. Behind the hotel just across the railway line and visible from our hotel window was a little corner of traditional Edo style izakaya eateries. We spent a couple of nights happily eating our way from one spot to another, we might not have been able to speak any Japanese to know what was actually on the menu at one place but we managed to order some roast chicken that we could see someone else eating and it was absolutely delicious.

The view from our hotel room overlooked a little corner of edo-style izakaya eateries.

The roast chicken which was deliciously tender with just the right amount of salty crispiness on the outside.

Izakayas are ideal for a relaxing and fun night out

The boys play paper, scissors, rock and we all eat dumplings at this colourful joint.

Our first full day was spent heading out to the Ghibli Museum. It was the second time Geoff and I had been there but we wanted to take Aiden as Ponyo and Our Neighbour Totoro are firm family favourites on high rotation viewing in our house. The special exhibition on viewing this time was particularly interesting for me as it showed all the workplace setups of the different creatives who are instrumental in creating the Ghibli films. Very inspirational to glimpse inside those creative processes.

Glimpses of Ghibli… Most of the museum is a photography free zone, only the outside area is snappable.

For lunch we headed to the Tolo Bakery further south of the museum for a simple pasta dish and the cutest little Totoro shaped profiteroles. Aiden chose a strawberry flavour, I chose green tea and Geoff chose the classic custard. Tolo Bakery is run by one of the family members of Miyazaki so unlike many unofficial Totoro spin-offs you’ll see it is actually connected to the Ghibli group.

Totoro Cream Puff Profiteroles from Tolo Bakery

Since I was little I have always loved hedgehogs and it has always been a dream of mine to meet a hedgehog. When I was young and my parents took me to England I was able to peer through the glass at the hedgehog rescue centre and see the little spikey balls resting amidst the leaves and I left wishing dearly I could have one as a pet. So having learnt about the existence of hedgehog cafes my first priority had to be to make a visit. After researching some options I settled on the Harry Harajuku cafe as being one of the better places to go and we made a booking. It was during this research period and watching youtube videos of hedgehogs that my son developed his own passion for this little spiny animal. So we spent a good long hour at the cafe meeting and greeting the hedgehogs. Sometimes we would carefully pick one up and give it a gentle downwards stroke along the spines and if it wriggled away we let it go back and curl up and rest for awhile. The hour flew by far too quickly for me, I could have spent much longer painting and observing and just appreciating the hedgehogs and my love of hedgehogs has only grown from the experience of being so up close and personal with them.

This little cutie settled in for a nap on my hand which was an absolute thrill for me.

Aiden and I were super excited to meet the hedgehogs.

Even curled up and hiding or eating these hedgehog cuties were wonderful to observe up close.

The next day was a Sunday and we headed North, out of the centre of Tokyo to the newly opened Moomin Valley in Hanno City, Saitama. It was a good choice for a relaxed Sunday excursion, strolling around the lake amidst the Scandi-inspired forest. There is something quiet different about a Japanese designed theme park. Unlike it’s American equivalent there isn’t tons of rides and lines around the place. Instead it’s more of a landscaped park inspired by a theme with a few cute touches thrown in, the ‘entertainment’ value is much more subdued and subtle, it is up to you to step into the space and find your own enjoyment within it. There is lots of of shopping opportunities though. The Japanese love their themed souvenirs and if you ever wanted any Moomin related merchandise this is the place to go. Tip - don’t spend all your money at the souvenir shop at the entrance… it’s only the start, within the park there are smaller little chalet shops and then right at the back is the big giant “main shop” which has everything and more in case you missed it. There was a performance show in Japanese and unfortunately as the park was only opened a few weeks earlier we missed out on tickets to some of the other individual activities such as the Moomin House tour. We did however discover the most amazing tree house playground which was perfect for our 5-year old boy to clamber up and down. He happily played for a couple of hours there whilst we rested and just enjoyed the holiday vibes before we headed across to the cafe for those tall fluffy looking pancakes with clouds of cotton candy on top that are quite popular in Tokyo at the moment.

The lake is the central feature of Moomin Valley Park, you can stroll around the lake or hire a boat to paddle around.

Just one section of the amazing multi-level tree house playground at the Moomin Valley Park

Day 3 was spent monorail hopping across the islands of South Tokyo. We started at Teamlab Planets exploring the wonder of the digital art landscape. We all loved the sparkly hanging lights that were reflected in infinite beauty by the mirrored space around us. Aiden enjoyed clambering over the black amorphous cushioned room whilst my husband and I felt far too old and heavy to navigate it with any grace or calm. Aiden also loved the giant white bouncy spheres that were lit up with intervals of alternating bright colours. I meanwhile loved wading through a giant koi fish pond or lying on my back watching flower stems swirling above my head.

My favourite of all the artworks at Teamlab Planets - the garden reflected in the water

Afterwards we headed to the new Toyosu fish market that has replaced the old inner Tsujiki market. We didn’t get to see the market itself as you arrive via monorail far above the action and we were on a mission for lunch. We had to line up and wait a long time for our table as despite the many options there was really only one that would happily satisfy us all - Ikinoya in Block 6 which served both the fresh sashimi my husband and I craved and also specialised in grilled fish dishes for Aiden to eat.

Tastes of Tuna at Ikinoya, Toyosu Fish markets

The final stop for the afternoon was a pilgrimage to the mecca of colour that is the art supply shop Pigment. The wall of pure colour is overwhelming and temptation hard to resist when greeted with so many fabulous colours. It really is a fascinating place to visit as well and the staff were very helpful as I agonised over which pigments to purchase, if I could take the whole shop home I certainly would have!

Walls of fabulous colour at the ultimate art supply shop: Pigment

Our final day in Tokyo was designated for shopping in the morning with a pilgrimage to check out a Michelin starred bowl of Ramen for lunch. I know some people like to not plan things on their holidays but honestly a little research and planning is really important if you want to experience certain things. There are 3 ramen noodle places awarded a michelin star in Tokyo and the one most people would have headed to is in Shinjuku. Another one is in Otsuka and whilst we had planned on going here for dinner one night we had so much fun izakaya hopping we didn’t end up going there as we opted for another night out to visit the other places we didn’t get round to on the first night. So we ended up going to the third place, Tsuta, which is actually the first of the three places to have received it’s star. It is located only two stations along from Otsuka in Sugamo so it is also in the north of Tokyo. From my research notes I knew we had to first of all go early in the morning to line up, pay a deposit and get our dining token. The dining tokens are allocated in time slots so it tells you when to return for lunch. If you try to turn up at actual lunch time all the tokens have already gone and you miss out. When you return you still have to line up and you are brought in to order your noodles before returning outside to wait until it’s time to sit and eat. This is not the kind of place to linger over your meal, you sit down and receive your bowl and are expected to eat quickly as there is still many more hungry customers waiting outside.

The unassuming outside of Tsuta in Sugamo

Michelin-starred Ramen noodles at Tsuta, Tokyo

In the afternoon the boys headed back to the hotel to rest whilst I checked out an exhibition of Modernist Viennese art and design at the National Art Centre.

A train-shaped Taiyoki that celebrates the old train line that runs through Otsuka.

Our time in Tokyo went quickly but we would be back again at the end of our trip for one final day spent shopping in Ginza before returning home. In Ginza we raided the multi-storey toy shop, Hakuhinkan, for Aiden where he had to make some difficult decisions as to just which toy he wanted to buy to take home (he chose the Shinkansen train set that featured in his recent birthday party btw). Geoff was in bakery heaven at Kimuraya - a really beautiful traditional breadshop that even had me excited (I’m usually much more of a cake person). I meanwhile raced around like crazy trying to hit as many shops as possible and stock up on wagashi sweets, stationery and ceramics that I could fit into what little luggage space I had leftover.

Excitement abounds at the Hakuhinkan Toy Park shop in Ginza

Delicious peach jellies for sale. Aiden tastes as many varieties as he could!

The cube shaped one was filled with caramelised apple and custard… An amazing take on a Tarte Tatin!

The next day it was time to check out and make our way to Kyoto. For this longest journey of our trip we splashed out on first class green car tickets on the fast service Nozomi. As we’d enjoyed the cheesecake so much we had to try the tiramisu that was made by the same makers - also delicious! Aiden was in his element chilling out enjoying the super fast train which would become his favourite train in the entire world.

Next stop on our trip will be Kyoto which I will explore further in Part 2….