Kamakura, Mount Fuji & Tokyo – the sea, the volcano & the nocturnal city 🌊🗻🌃

To get to Kamakura we took a train from Yamagata, changing on the outskirts of Tokyo to a smaller local train. It’s at this point I get my first glimpses of Tokyo, a place I’ve always wanted to visit, and somewhere we’ve deliberately left to the end of our time in Japan – as inevitably we’ll spend more money here, and it’s probably going to be a little crazy!

Kamakura 🌊

On first introductions, Kamakura is a laid back surf-vibe town that you wouldn’t expect to be that close to Tokyo. It must be a popular city escape for so many, with a nice beach, relaxed shopping, and pretty quiet(ish) shrines and temples dotted about. There’s also a small charming train that takes you from Kamakura to the other villages close by. And it’s the place where you can get those train level-crossing photographs of Japan you’ve probably seen on Instagram.

After checking in to our hostel we walk along the coast to a spot where you can apparently see Mount Fuji in the distance on a clear day. And it does indeed reveal its self when we get close. We spend a good hour sat watching the sunset with Fuji poking out of the horizon. In a couple of days we’ll be right next to it.

The next day we spend wandering around the sites of Kamakura, and there’s a lot to offer. We see giant Buddhas, temples, bamboo forests and even some tree blossom making an appearance. There’s a set of red gates you can walk through and at the end you’ll find thousands of miniature shrine foxes in vast scenes 🦊 Japan never fails to be creative.

Mount Fuji 🗻

To get to Mount Fuji we need to traverse around Tokyo and then take a bus. We decide to make a stop in Yokohama to visit the ramen museum, a theme park like attraction providing the history of ramen in Japan and a food court styled on the streets of old Japan. Spoiler alert, it was the Chinese who introduced noodle style soup in Japan, as a solution to the many Chinese students and expats who had relocated to Japan from China, who were looking for hot home comfort food (Japan at the time ate a lot of cold food, apparently). Japan have now obviously made it their own with different flavour profiles and methods to what you would find in China, and it’s different to Chinese soup noodles, but the origins are clear (well, at least according to the Ramen museum! Feel,this could be a hotly debated topic) 🍜

We arrive in the town of next to Mount Fuji and we’re swiftly picked up by our guest house host in a very cool vintage Toyota Land Cruiser, a sight you’ll frequently see in Japan. The guest house is in the perfect location in a smaller village with unobstructed views of Fuji. The owner and host took over the reigns from his grandparents around 10 years ago and has curated a relaxing space where you’re free to cook and hang out, and gaze endlessly at Fuji and beyond. We hear that’s it’s actually a bit tricky to get a clear view of Mount Fuji in many months of the year, due to cloud and mist. We’re there in winter which is generally the best time to see it, with the added bonus it’s also quieter with more people choosing to visit in the blossom weeks and summer.

We spent the next day cycling around the nearby lake catching views of Fuji before heading to Arakura Fuji Sengen Shrine – the place of many photographs of Fuji and the red temple. It was a nice place to be for sunset, and there were crowds but it didn’t feel super busy.

Flying Sushi 🍣

The next day we make a stop at a supermarket to pick up a picnic for the lake. We pack our foodie delights in the basket of the bikes and start making our way to the lake. To both our surprises, we cycle over a large bump in the road and as a I look around I see the horror on Carmen’s face as her freshly prepared sushi is flying through air, piece by piece, the bump having made the entire contents of her basket jump right out. You can picture the scene 🤣 we spend the next 5 minutes picking up rice and fish from the floor before retuning to the supermarket to get more food 🍣🪽

A big birthday blow out in Tokyo 🗼

It was time to head to Tokyo for a few days of birthday fun and to meet Manon and Wes. We’re meeting Manon in the neighbourhood we’re staying in – Shimo-Kitazawa – but have a few hours to wait before she arrives. To kick off the celebrations we drink a few beers in a bar near to the station.

Our apartment is bigger than most in the city, thanks to Carmen booking an especially nice place for my birthday. The neighborhood is cool, a little further out and less touristy than some. There’s loads of vintage clothes shops and markets, probably the most I’ve ever seen in one place. There’s also plenty of interesting looking bars that we’ll be working our way through over the next few days.

We get started with Shabu-shabu (Japanese hot pot) and unlimited drinks (Carmens idea, not mine 😂), followed by stop in a bar that is themed around giant dragons and Harry Potter style cocktails. More drinks in a tiny whisky bar hidden beneath the street, where the highly trained smartly dressed bar tender serves up high grade Japanese whisky on the bar in very moody low lighting. The whole place only seats 8 and smoking is very much allowed in Japanese bars, which adds a certain nostalgic feel to the place, but it also makes your clothes stink for days. After a few whisky’s Manon is craving Karaoke so we quickly find a place nearby – a locals spot by the feel of it, with an ecollective bunch of people. This is where night one gets a little blurry. I definitely didn’t take part in the karaoke but Carmen and Manon did. At some stage I take myself back to our apartment, struggling to unlock the door using the codes provided.

We stroll around the neighbourhood the next day feeling a little dazed, until Wes arrives for part deux. We head to a nearby restaurant known for great katsu curry but theres a big queue, we decide to stick it out, playing a few rounds of the Alphabet game where each person needs to come up with an answer for each letter based on a theme. Time flies and we’re sat eating katsu before you know it. By this time we were running late for tonight’s main event – we had seats reserved at a hidden jazz bar that you enter through a Coca Cola fridge. We presumed the worst that our seats would be gone, as it was past the band start time, but to our amazement when we got there the place was completely rammed but the host had kept our 4 seats free near the front for us – we just had to squeeze through everyone and sit down. Drinks even arrived within what felt like seconds.

We had no idea who the band was, and as it turned out it was a jazz fusion band playing covers of computer game sound tracks and originals to Anime, scored by one of the band members. Only in Tokyo does this happen, and only in Tokyo does this sound feel completely appropriate. We chatted to the band in the intermission, most of who had relocated to Tokyo from the U.S to be part of the anime/game music industry, all already fluent in Japanese. Impressive.

It was already late after several hours of jazz-anime-fusion, but it was time for our next stop. We wanted more of the low key whisky bar but it was closed, so we found another bar serving up late night cocktails with moody red lightning. It was now just after 3am and it was time for dinner number two – Ramen – served at place open 24hrs a day, and through a hatch. You sit individually ticking off options on your Ramen questionnaire on how you want it served (extra soup, egg, spicy etc – you get the picture). It’s a fun experience, and even funnier in the middle of the night. Time for bed.

Day three – the last day of my thirties, how time does fly. We had tickets booked for the Studio Gibli museum, which seemed like a million miles from where we were staying, we cut it very fine arriving on time too. The museum was very cool, all themed like the movies with big exhibitions on the animation, drawing and concepts. There was also a cinema inside for a special mini cut of My Neighbour Totoro.

We also had tickets booked for the huge tower in Shibuya, where we headed to next. If you haven’t been to Tokyo before, Shibuya is something else – confusing train stations and figuring out how to get where you need to go. Especially after feeling a little dazed after two days in Tokyo. We got lost multiple times, it makes Bank station in London seem like a small village train station.

The tower gives stunning 360 views of Tokyo and sprawling metropolitan areas that go on for mile after mile. It’s also pitch black at the top which helps with the views. Next stop, we needed refreshments, so picked a street famous for tiny bars with one bartender/host. We had a nice chat in the first, where bartender was from Mexico but rediscovering his Japanese roots. We tried some great sakes before moving onto a place with a very small staircase and lots of bizarre decorations. I think we had whisky high balls in there 🥃

We made our way into central Shibuya for dinner, opting for a Japanese-Jamaican restaurant 😂which turned out to be pretty good. After sampling various jerk flavoured things, we then decided to go for a second dinner at an appealing restaurant round the corner. It was now around 11pm, but Shibuya is only getting started. The restaurant had no issue allowing us to order and take our time too. As it was approaching midnight I was kindly treated to delicious food and free flowing drinks to bring in the new birthday year, and a new decade 🫠 If there’s ever a perfect meal, this felt like one.

We somehow ended up in a bar-meets-club nearby after that and that’s when things get blurry. Many flash photos on my camera of people I don’t know. Memories of creative dance moves. Endless images in my head of drinks. Lost bags. Trying to get a taxi with my limited Japanese. Eating an egg sandwich. Good night.

The next day, my actual birthday was a slow affair with us venturing out later on. Carmen had to help Manon with the messiness of being abroad and losing a bag containing your passport and everything else essential. Wes missed his flight home and stayed another day. We did however have a reservation for highly rated pizza back in Shibuya, so off we went.

We ended the evening in a place I’d see online but with no expectation that we would actually go. It’s a whisky bar inside a connivence shop – sounds rubbish, but is in-fact excellent. A concept that would not be signed off or delivered in the western world, is the complete norm in Japan. Why not combine a whisky specialist bar and a shop for groceries. We sat at the bar for a couple of hours drinking the finest Japanese whiskies while observing the salarymen falling asleep a few seats on. The two bartenders working there were also obscenely pissed. A shoutout to Tom in the UK who sent funds to buy special whiskies.

We made our farewells to Wes and Manon and we headed a little further north out of the chaos/fun of Tokyo to spend our last night in a quiet town where we could reflect on all the fun we’d had over the last two months.