hanami
today was heartwarming in a lot of ways. i originally had no plans today, but the wonderful shinobu-san, the owner of the airbnb i am staying in, scheduled a meetup for a hanami, a japanese tradition of enjoying the day beneath the blooming sakura (cherry blossom) trees. there are a few sakura trees in tokyo that have bloomed now, so people were out celebrating and having fun in huge droves.
shinobu-san owns a travel company in japan, and organizes meetups for things like this. the day was wonderful, and i got to meet quite a few new people.
the day started with everyone meeting up at a family mart (convenience store like 7-eleven) near the tokyo skytree. we then made our way towards the asakusa area, where food stalls were set up for the celebration.
our destination was a very unique experience, a cafe run by geisha and maiko (geisha in training). some people have some problematic and incorrect misconceptions about what geisha are, so i recommend looking at this wikipedia page. i wont summarize it here, but i want to mention that being a geisha is a full-on trade, and they are entertainers. i think a lot of people think geisha are in some way related to the sex industry, but that isn’t the case.
i did not get any photos here, as i had recently read several news stories about the geisha districts of kyoto no longer allowing foreign tourists, because of outrageous levels of disrespect and rude behavior. i didn’t want to bother anybody. plus, as many of you know, i don’t like taking photos of people generally. i don’t like being in photos, so it is hard for me to justify putting other people in photos.
all of that being said, the other people in the group took several, including some with me in them. so despite what i may have said in a previous blog post about not posting any pictures of myself, here are some photos taken by other members of the group at this geisha cafe.
the food and tea were wonderful. and it was beautiful out. i did get a few pictures of the surrounding area.
when we all finished eating and relaxing here, we walked around the food stalls nearby and found a table, where we all shared a couple beers. this photo was also not taken by me, as evidenced by me being in it.
everyone in this area was celebrating and having a great time. at one point, a nice man from the table next to us opened up a cooler and brought us all a bunch of onigiri and other snacks, just for free. just happy to be having a good time on such a beautiful day. he just walked over and donated like 20 snacks to our group for free. incredible!
from here, we walked over to a nearby blooming cherry blossom tree and got some photos and enjoyed the view.
then we walked around a big open area where everyone set up picnics with their families and friends, and headed towards asakusa from there.
this is where the group meetup ended, and everyone went their separate ways. i decided to go to a nearby don quijote store in asakusa. for those who have not heard of don quijote, it is a mystical place. need a shirt? a pair of pants? eggs? a nintendo switch? anime merchandise? modeling kits? an otamatone? sex toys? a bed? scissors that are also mini katanas? souvenir knick-knacks? stuffed animals? so much stuff that it is difficult to walk around the store? don quijote has you covered. i didn’t get a ton of pictures inside the store, because it is just really densely packed.
i had fun walking around just laughing to myself at all the weird stuff. this place is great. anyone visiting japan should go to one.
once that was complete, it was time to head back home.
saying goodbye to hatanodai
i am really going to miss hatanodai, and tokyo in general. it feels strange. there are still over 2 weeks left of my vacation, but i feel sad to be leaving hatanodai and tokyo behind. there is so much to do here that i still haven’t explored. so many restaurants and sightseeing areas i didn’t see. i never even got to go to ueno or the imperial palace.
random aside, but when you are learning japanese, one of the first things you learn is that “goodbye” is さようなら or “sayounara.” but i have also learned from watching videos about traveling to japan and learning japanese, and now also from observing japanese people, that no one actually ever says さようなら. i asked shinobu-san about this today, and she said no one says it because さようなら is for saying goodbye to someone you won’t ever see again. it is like a final goodbye.
so on that note, i am 100% confident that i will not be saying さようなら to hatanodai or tokyo. i will definitely be back.
i got a little teary-eyed on the walk back from hatanodai station today, realizing it is the last time i’ll be doing it on this trip.
i don’t really know what it is about this particular area, but i really love it. if i lived in tokyo, i would want to live here. i could probably live in the airbnb i spent my time in here. it is small, but its more than fine for one person.
on that note, if you are traveling to japan and staying in tokyo, and are a solo traveler, i highly highly highly recommend this airbnb. it can be done with 2 people, there is a futon available. but it might be difficult for 2 unless you plan to only use it to sleep. shinobu-san, the host, is amazing and made my trip much better. i will be forever grateful that i found this place and it was available for my trip. in the future, whenever i stay in tokyo, i will stay here. guaranteed.
dinner with shinobu-san
i ended my night by having dinner with shinobu-san at a local chicken place here in hatanodai. i have walked by it dozens of times now, but i thought it was a bar. i didn’t realize it was a full on restaurant. it was incredible.
i tried natto for the first time. i kinda expected this to be like the “vegemite” of japan. a thing the locals love that i would think is gross. it is fermented soybeans, and in this case, an egg.
honestly, i couldn’t taste it. it didn’t taste bad or good. it just tasted very lightly of egg. supposedly it is pretty healthy!
the chicken was heavenly. especially the first picture. all three of them were great, but that one in particular was absolutely legendary. likely because i love green onions and thats what’s on top of it.
today was a perfect capstone on the tokyo leg of my trip. enjoyed a beautiful day, met some new people, got some good photos, saw a weird store, and ate a great dinner. i will look back on tokyo and especially hatanodai fondly for the rest of my life.
because i am feeling kinda nostalgic about this place i have barely even been in, i am going to include a gallery of all my favorite photos i took of hatanodai.
またね, hatanodai.
