Not quite lost in translation...just lost in Tokyo!

I have been quite remiss with my posts of late...not posting but certainly not missing.  Fortune and a heavy workload has meant a long but rewarding foray into the bowels of Tokyo.  It only seems like yesterday that I was previously lost in the streets of Tokyo but the time lapse can be translated in years and not I am afraid, days.  But here I am once again, but this time, I have arrived during the hottest summer on record...hot enough to fry the proverbial egg on the 'yakitori grill' of a pavement.  Nevertheless, I have found the energy and inclination to wander the streets, tempt the tastebuds and appreciate a great deal of what this wonderful city has to offer.

The delicate cuisine of Japan has featured quite prominently on this trip and I was fortunate last evening, to share my table with Japanese colleagues and partake in a rather sumptuous feast comprising among other delicacies; impossibly red octopus, ridiculously fresh sashimi, lovingly prepared anchovies and...hideously slimy calf bowel!  Best not to ask really, though unfortunately, I did.  It was however, a marvellous experience and one not usually available to the odd, vague westerner with a touch of heat exhaustion!

The beautiful gardens of Tokyo have also played an important role in my attempts to find a shady spot and a cool breeze in the burning midday heat and nowhere in the world does gardens quite like the Japanese.  Every glade and rippling pond brings delight as well as a chance to mop the perspiration from the eyes.

It is with the aim of replenishing lost fluids that I have found a comfortable, and air-conditioned table at Goodbeer Faucets, a sleek and modern establishment in the heart of Shibuya.  With more than 40 micro beers on offer, one can not complain of being short of choice. It would seem more than a little churlish not to drink beer in such an establishment so, selecting the bar's own Nide Beer, I can start to relax and contemplate just how many 440ml glass of this nectar I will need to down in order to feel human again!

The weird, the wonderful...and the astonishing!

By just walking around the various districts of Tokyo, you realise that, despite a life time of experiences, and despite what one thinks, one has not seen it all.  Every facade holds a secret and around every corner one is surprised.  From shops that horribly and tragically "farm" puppies, to establishments that cater specifically for those with a nurse fetish, (and no dear reader, I am not one of them), Tokyo opens your mind (and its doors) to all those who ask.  Despite the occasional jaw dropping ugliness and ethical, moral and personal upheaval, there is also more than a passing temporal beauty and zen serenity.  The cities parks and gardens are wonderful and surprisingly bountiful and easy to find and even easier to enjoy.  But what Tokyo serves up better than almost anywhere, is the astonishing array of completely wacky but ultimately gob smackingly wonderful architecture!  My personal favourite is the completely outrageous Super Dry Hall by Philippe Starck: a balanced pile of black glass with a "golden turd" on top.  Excuse the crude comparison, but that is the image that so quickly and readily enters my mind.  Revolting image aside, it is all so absolutely quirky but so absolutely right! 
Too much of this sort of thing however,  and one could...well...be driven to drink! One could even walk to drink and that is what I have done.  Well within sight of the 'Starck' reality of Tokyo, I have settled in to a Beni Otoma Shochu, a delightful clear distilled spirit, this one infused with roasted sesame seeds.  Akin to a good Vodka, Shochu is the perfect tipple to contemplate the bizarre. 

This is Tokyo, and it is positively...topping!

Tokyo is everything you imagine it is...actually, it is everything you ever imagined! Before I arrived, I thought it would be interesting, but I never imagined it would really have everything.  Oh! I do go on.  Tempering my hand, I imagined the concrete canyons, I imagined the shopping, I imagined the lights, I imagined the food and I expected the orderly nature of things, but I never imagined that I would feel simpatico with it all.  I usually have an appreciation for the chaotic, but in Tokyo, I have an appreciation for the chaotic order of what it is. None of it makes sense but it all fells right. I am sorry reader, but that it just what it is! It all just feels right!  It is visually loud but aurally quiet...it is atheistically wrong but so stylistically spot on...it is...just is!  This will no doubt upset the purists, but Tokyo is Ikebana, that art form in which nature and humanity are brought together.  In attempting to bring nature and humanity together in my own very special way, I have settled on a subtle yet delightfully potent homemade Umeshu for my evening tipple; that wonderful Japanese sweet, sour plum liqueur made from steeping ume fruits in the best available sake, well, any alcohol really.  I have been truly blessed by being invited to a sublime private, and might I say, incredibly salubrious Shimokitazawa sanctuary to imbibe in the very best.  Life is indeed at its best!