EAT/PLAY/SLEEP
Land of the Rising Sun Japan might be epitomised by the buzz of its capital, but there are two sides to this vast and diverse country. From fast-paced to a subtropical stupor, Graeme Green explores Tokyo before slowing the pace in Okinawa
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hef Mazakusu Ishibashi raises a cleaver. “Clam?” he asks, dropping one onto a wooden board. The clam’s sides curl up, still alive. Before I have time to answer, Ishibashi chops it cleanly in two and, using chopsticks, places the pieces carefully on my plate. It’s hard to get fresher than that. This tiny Tokyo sushi restaurant, Sushi Ichi, is hard to find, tucked away on an inauspicious side street in the busy Ginza shopping district. Inside, it looks exactly as you imagine a Japanese sushi restaurant, with Ishibashi and his assistant, both with shaved heads and wearing black kimonos, deftly using long sharp knives to slice and serve the highest quality fish from the famous local Tsukiji fish markets. “Sushi is Tokyo soul food,” Ishibashi tells me, as he serves his signature fatty tuna, then sea urchin, sea perch and flounder sushi fresh-rolled with healthy doses of wasabi, accompanied by a small jug of crisp saké. Afterwards, as I leave, Ishibashi and the waitress follows me out onto the street, bowing respectfully, a very Japanese gesture and a sign that—as is clear from the food— they care about what they do. The whole thing feels like a classic Japanese experience. But defining ‘classic Japan’ is difficult when the capital and the country have so many different sides and suprises. I spend a week in Tokyo, often in the shadow of shining skyscrapers, exploring traditional Japanese gardens and the peaceful grounds of the Imperial Palace, then the bright neon of the ‘Electric City’ (Akihabara). I watch traditional weddings at the Meiji Shrine in sedate Yoyogi Park, then zoom in a lift 450 metres up to the top of the new Skytree, one of the world’s tallest structures. One morning, I take my seat with the locals for some traditional Kabuki theatre, a colourful, distinctive, often bizarre stage show with big dramatic gestures and eerie music, then, in the afternoon, I’m entertained by Asimo, a four foot tall talking robot who runs, dances and kicks a football across the halls of the Miraikan Museum. All this, you could easily say, is ‘classic’ Japan. I manage (by booking a month ahead) to get a table at cutting edge Narisawa, chef Yoshihiro Narisawa’s acclaimed restaurant. The meal is full of Blumenthal-esque moments, including a salad that looks like a square of ground lifted from the forest floor with edible
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Aerial view of Tokyo Sky Tree
grass and soil, sweetened bark, leaves and a thimble-sized hollow tree trunk filled with cedar and oak-infused water. Happy diners snap the novel plates of food on their smart phones: oyster with cherry blossom vapour, or herby bread baked fresh in a stone pot on your table. It’s impossible to guess what each course will taste like but it’s always a pleasant surprise. The city’s hotels throw up the same kind of diversity: traditional or modern, grand giants or small and personal. I spend time in the thriving business and entertainment district Maranouchi, first at the Palace Hotel Tokyo, Tokyo’s newest five star opening, next to the Imperial Palace, then the more intimate, boutique-like Four Seasons Tokyo, close to Tokyo Station. I also check out the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo at the top of the 53-storey Midtown Tower in Roppongi, Tokyo’s tallest building. The sushi in the hotel’s Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant, Hinokizaka, served by chatty waitresses in kimonos, makes me want to move to Tokyo. As well as these modern venues, I stay at the more traditional Chinzanso Hotel in Edogawa Park, a world away from the skyscrapers and city bustle. In a garden room with tatami flooring and paper
walls, two women in kimonos lead me through a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, each element careful and graceful in the delivery. “Tea ceremonies were held between top levels of Samurai,” my host Harue Kamiya explains, after we’ve drunk the bitter green tea. I fly from Tokyo down to Okinawa in southern Japan. The landscape couldn’t be more different as I drive along the coast, with green, Pacific island hills and each corner bringing a new stretch of white sand. After Tokyo’s bright lights and fast pace, here on the island everything slows. The subtropical islands of the region used to be an independent Ryukyu kingdom and has a proudly different culture from the mainland. “The lifestyle’s more relaxed,” says Shoji Ueda, an Okinawan guide. “It’s okay for things to be behind schedule. It’s known as ‘Okinawa time.’ And there’s less stress.” Okinawa’s still perhaps best known as the site of World War II’s 81-day Battle for Okinawa. I visit the Peace Memorial on the south coast, which remembers the Japanese, American and British lives that were lost. The USA occupied the islands after the war until 1972 and many USA bases remain today. There are signs everywhere of American culture, from fast food restaurants to Hawaiian shirts. The islands are also where the Shinjuku, one of 23 wards of Tokyo, commonly referred to Kabukicho the large entertainment, business and shopping area around Shinjuku Station
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Top row: Twelfth Night performed by Shochiku Grand Kabuki; The Akihabara district in Tokyo, known as Electric City, it has the world’s largest range of electrical appliances and gadgets; The bustling Tsukiji Market, officially called Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, it is the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. Middle row: Cuisine in Okinawa; Sumo Grand Champion, Yokozuna during the annual event for the Grand champions. Here he performs the purification ritual to celebrate the New Year at the Meiji Jingu Shrine, 2012; Manga characters painted on outdoor lockers, Electric City, Akihabara. Bottom row: Store on Kokusai Street Naha City, Okinawa Island, Japan; Ema Plaques at Meiji Shinto Shrine, Tokyo.
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Above: Night street scene of illuminated signs and lights of shops in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Below: One of the many temples in Shinjuku and a collection of paper lanterns
martial art karate originated. More recently, it’s the Okinawa region’s healthy food that has been putting the islands on the map. At the Ritz-Carlton Okinawa, up on the north coast, overlooking Nago Bay, I sit at the counter and watch teppanyaki chef Yuji Takakura flipping and sizzling food on the grill, including snapper, seaweed and local vegetables, such as sweet potato and goya (bitter green veg). “Food in Okinawa is very healthy,” Yuji tells me. “We eat more pork in Okinawa than beef on the mainland. Okinawa pork is low cholesterol. We eat a lot of vegetables. Okinawa people live to be older, maybe to 90 or 100, maybe because of the pork and vegetables.” Scientists around the world continue to study the Okinawan diet, which features a lot of fish, tofu and local fruit and veg, for clues on
how to achieve long lives, like the islanders. One Okinawan woman died just a few days shy of reaching 115 years old. The islands also have low rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. I check out the whale sharks, manta rays, dolphins and tropical fish at the Okinawan Churaumi Aquarium and visit Shuri Castle, the government HQ during the Ryukyu era, as I drive back down through the island to Hyakuna Garan, an elegant white limestone hotel that opened just last year. At high tide, waves cover the rocks and reach the hotel walls—my balcony couldn’t be more ‘seafront’ without actually being in the sea. In the evening, waitress Seiko gives a detailed introduction to each of the dinner’s nine courses, which is useful as there are ingredients I’ve not come across before, including local seaweeds and seagrapes.
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“Scientists around the world continue to study the Okinawan diet, which achieve long lives, like the islanders. One Okinawan woman died just a few days shy of reaching 115 years old.” „Weiße Strände an sichelförmigen Buchten verheißen Badevergnügen, dunklere Schattierungen
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Küstengewässern versprechen Tauch- und
Taketomi Island, in the Yaeyama District of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the Yaeyama Islands
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EAT/PLAY/SLEEP
Hoshinoya Okinawa resort. The villas are based on local, wooden houses with traditional tatami mats, sliding doors and futons, but also have plenty of modern comforts: WiFi, an iPod dock and a standalone bathtub. I spend an incredibly relaxing afternoon cycling around the small island, passing green fields where cows graze, stopping to snorkel off white sandy beaches. Dinner at the hotel has French-style cooking, the first time I’ve used a knife and fork, rather than chopsticks, since I arrived in Japan. But the ingredients are predominantly local, with juicy Taketomi prawns and a delicious tomato gazpacho soup with basil fresh from the hotel’s garden. After a similarly impressive breakfast of tofu
pancakes, poached eggs, mackerel and local vegetables, I take a gentle ride around the village on a cart pulled along by water buffalo power. The village is peaceful, with narrow streets lined with limestone walls that have been decorated with colourful flowers. As we trundle along, the driver picks up a local threestringed instrument, like a banjo, and sings an island folk song. I get dropped off near a café and try the local take on ice cream: a heaped pile of ice shavings sprinkled with local brown sugar. At the bottom of the bowl, there’s a layer of kidney beans, Japan serving up surprises right to the very end. It isn’t quite the best thing I’ve tasted in the country, but then, it had some very stiff competition.
LITTLE BLACK BOOK British Airways www.ba.com, 0844 4930787 Return flights from £835.95 JAL (www.jal.com) and ANA (www.ana.co.jp) operate regular flights from Tokyo to Naha on Okinawa and Ishigaki. Japan Journeys www.japanjourneys.co.uk InsideJapan www.insidejapantours.com Ritz-Carlton Tokyo www.ritzcarlton.com/tokyo Shangri-La Hotel Tokyo www.shangri-la.com Palace Hotel Tokyo en.palacehoteltokyo.com Four Seasons Tokyo www.fourseasons.com/tokyo Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo www.hotel-chinzanso-tokyo. com Narisawa www.narisawa-yoshihiro.com Ritz-Carlton Okinawa www.ritzcarlton.com/okinawa Hyakuna Garan www.hyakunagaran.com ANA InterContinental Ishigaki Resort www.intercontinental.com Hoshinoya Okinawa global.hoshinoresort.com/ hoshinoya_okinawa For more info, visit www. seejapan.co.uk, www.gotokyo. org or www.okinawastory.jp Above: The five star Ritz-Carlton hotel Tokyo, home to an impressive 13 different types of suite and club rooms.
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IMAGES: PAGE 144, © JAPAN TOURIST BOARD, PHOTOGRAPHER Y. SHIMIZU; PAGE 146, © REX/AFLO (1717827C), AERIAL VIEW OF TOKYO SKY TREE, JAPAN; PAGE 148, © REX/A SHILO/ISRAEL SUN (616825O); PAGE 151, © REX/ALASTAIR MUIR (880703D); NAKAMURA TOKIZO V (OLIVIA) ONOE KIKUGORO VII (MALVOLIO); REX/RICHARD JONES (515877BF); REX/AFLO (2177432E); REX/KEYSTONEUSA-ZUMA (1531342E); REX/WENDY CONNETT / ROBERT HARDING (1212844A); DESIGN PICS INC/REX (952369A); REX/ DEEDEE DEGELIA & BRENT WINEBRENNER & DEGELIA / MOOD BOARD (1286788A); REX/ALASTAIR MUIR (591007B); PAGE 153, © PAUL BROWN/REX (2303966DZ); F1 ONLINE/ REX (2220601A); PAUL BROWN/REX (2303966ED); GRAEME GREEN - TAKETOMI ISLAND
Each small dish or element is presented artfully and with care, very Japanese, and there are frequent suprises, like Ryukyun tofu aged with a big kick punch of local awamori (rice whisky), and a shrimp and seaweed cake in rich peanutty tofu potage. Each of the Yaeyama islands has its own feel and unique possibilities. I fly across to Ishigaki and spend a morning diving in the gentle, almost current-free waters out from Kabira Bay, swimming among clownfish and other brightly coloured fish. On Iriomote, I hike through rainforest-covered hills to the top of Pinaisara waterfall, the region’s highest, then catch a ferry across to the tiny, laidback island of Taketomi, staying at the recently opened