fuchsia fragments

It was not a walk in the park like Mount Takao. Mount Mitake is around 2 hours from Tokyo first by JR train to Mitake Station, then a bus to the ropeway station followed by the ropeway which takes you up 431 metres in 6 minutes at an incline of 22 degrees: the steepest in the Kanto region and wicked cool!

The hike doesn't really start until you get to the top of the ropeway station and another 15-20 minute walk to the village and shrine itself. The shrine is a few flights of stairs up again and a great "warm up" to the hike. Some nice little shops, probably locally run with souvenirs, drinks and soba. We decided to skip this until we returned in the late afternoon.

We had already decided that we walk to do the hike from Mount Mitake to Mounta Odake. It is hard work and it didn't help that we took a wrong turn and had to back track around 1 km (on an incline and in the bush, this is an additional 20-30 min walk!). We passed the rock garden and had a little break here before going the additional way (another 90 minutes) to the top. Hard, hard work constantly walking at an incline and very steep and slippery in some section. There is a tori gate before the final summit and it gets even HARDER! More rocks - literally there are sections where you are holding on to the built in chains and hauling your ass up (and we had to get back down...). And finally, after another 30 minutes from this gate, we made it to 1,266 metre up... the summit of Mt Odake! There was sunshine and lots of other people (surprisingly) and so we only took a small break again before descending. The descent was very hard on the calves and thighs but it only took us 90 minutes to descend all the way back to the shrine - i was surprised.

So had a quick check of the timetables (so easy with google) and we had time to have a really late lunch (soba again!). Just missed the ropeway so we had another 30 minute wait which was fine, it was a nice area to wander and browse more of the small shops around. Glad I brought a spare tshirt too as it helped me feel slightly refreshed. On the train, it was packed with others who had finished their hikes. The Japanese sure are well prepared with almost everyone decked on in expensive poles, boots, backpacks and weatherproof layers... crazy. Never would you see such a scene in Australia.

Another great day - glad we did it on Sunday as if it wasn't for work, I would have written off the next day! My first 30,000+ step hike!

Then we stopped for lunch at a soba shop that came with tofu skin (yuba 湯葉) which is made locally. I also learnt that sashimi does not only refer to raw fish. Rather, it is any type of dish served in its 'raw' form so it can be yuba sashimi or konnyaku sashimi. There's realisation that the Japanese food Western countries know and love is totally unoriginal... they don't have sushi rolls here! It's mostly nigiri or maki.

So Mr and Mrs JC arrived and so we spent the weekend food hunting: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, Asakusa and Akihabara.

Some interesting places, some pretty ordinary and unfortunately drummed up by food bloggers and reviewers who probably didn't know much better. There is a lot of great food in Tokyo and sometimes, it is the local nooks and basement bars that serve the best dishes. I know one thing for sure: I would never queue up on my own at a lot of these places! And just couldn't justify the 45+ minute wait.

Although there were a couple of standouts. The freshwater eel at Nodaiwa in Ginza was worth going to even if it was just to catch a glimpse of Head chef Jiro at his famous sushi bar opposite! The prices are expensive but it can be a bit of a treat if you absolutely love eel.

Pancakes at Rainbow Pancake in Shibuya really reminded me of Saturday brunch in Sydney. The streets, the lines, the pancakes.. fluffy but not super fluffy with burnt butterscotch sauce and baked apples. It was tasty! However, they need to do something about their drink menu...

A bit of a letdown was Butagumi which is nestled in one of the residential areas not too far from Roppongi. Expensive (and fatty) tonkatsu with average service, sauce and sides. I've honestly had better in other chains and at the restaurants on top of the department stores. Sad face.

I'm constantly surprised at the amount of food visitors can eat in Tokyo. For me, I just want some rest and some green veg and juice! Time is now ticking and a) I need a new job, b) I need to do more shopping.

We had a Design Thinking workshop yesterday followed by Japanese-Spanish fusion at a local restaurant which was very pretty. The food was good too but not Spanish (pretty sure my Spanish friend would be mortified. The drinks were good if you can overlook that the Sangria was lemonade, red wine and cinnamon. But their version of the whiskey highball was good as it had the added taste of gin. I really am liking gin at the moment.

Dinner was great but we went for "one more drink" (i.e., sit at a bar until the last train) around the corner. And as we weren't prepared and weren't planning to stick around the area since we always go to Roppongi, we kind of had to find any place that well, had a table available. Who would have thought that this would be difficult at 10 PM on a Tuesday evening? Anyway, we managed to stumble into a place after our third try (actually, there was a guy standing around who told us to go to his awesome place... talk about managing to get customers - he was good!).

At this stage, it really was supposed to be ONE MORE DRINK. But then about 20 minutes later, this group of around 10 office ladies and guys sat down at the next table and they were noisy. And the funniest thing ever, one of the girls sat down and it was kind of next to my boss (but on the next table) and preceded to tell him how handsome he was. HAHAHAHAHA.

So we bought them a round of drinks and some of them decided to show their gratitude by showing everyone how awesome their drinking skills were (they were probably my age or a little bit older). You really had to be there - it was so much fun and have not laughed so much in months. Literally like drinking with the locals and it was great! Could not believe how loud they can get especially because it is always so so quiet in the office!