Zarbaraki: August 2018

I will admit I was a little nervous about Alex and Steve's trip to Japan.

Firstly, Alex's older sister Samantha visited the country a year beforehand and had made a big deal about the amazing time she'd had to Alex. Expectations were high. I needed to deliver.

And so, based on a combination of Samantha's "must-do" list, and my own recommendations, I created a very detailed (11+ pages) plan. And yes, I did get rather carried away.

In my defense, this was the first time a close friend has come to visit and I had over 4 years of experience and recommendations to get off my chest.

The second source of my nervousness was that despite my long hours of planning, finding accommodation, looking into rooms, prices, logistics, etc. Steve seemed to ignore a lot of what I had written (well, it was an essay) and starting booking some off-piste places that did not fit into the plan. On one occasion I had to call him up and convince him to cancel an airbnb musical cult house he had booked on the coast of Shizuoka the same night I had already booked a ryokan for us at Lake Yamanakako in Yamanashi. "They look close-ish on a map, can't we just stay there the following night". Umm, unless you're happy to travel for 7 straight hours, then no. Come on Stebu (my personal nickname for him), Hasn't the logic of always consulting Google for the feasibility of travel times and journeys ingrained itself into modern life yet? Although, I will admit, that I messed up a bit in this respect with some of the planning for my later trip to Shikoku I took with Mel and Tom, so I don't want to be too much of a hypocrite.

Anyway- after they had finally booked all their accommodation - and I will give Steve some credit, after he was convinced to stay in a certain area, he was very good at finding accommodation and filling in the rest of the gaps - the stressful part was over, they arrived, and I could finally relax and have fun. And fun we had.

Some of the stuff we did:

Yamanakako, Yamanashi: All-day-hiking - no-one around, perfect view of Mount Fuji beaming over the lake. We followed a hiking path I found online (no English) and it took us a while to find the starting point (at which point I was getting a little stressed that maybe we wouldn't be able to), but did, and hiked over a range of 3 mountains over the course of around 4 hours (start to end) and finished with a relaxing onsen and ryokan experience in the evening. It was a pretty perfect day.

Tokyo

Steve and Alex spent a lot of time shopping. Matt couldn't get over how much Alex dresses like a Japanese woman. Proof:

They were very lucky with their timing in Japan because the cherry blossom was in full bloom and everything looked beautiful. We met up with Joe and walked alongside the river in Nakameguro, enjoying the sakura matsuri:

Unfortunately the view of the cherry blossom canopying over the river is blocked by these three foreigners.

I also took them to Shimokitazawa to try on loads of vintage stuff, and I took them to my favourite restaurant there: Madoshi, the avocado restaurant - my memory tells me they like it, but I don't remember. Those avocado dishes with their soft green texture and perfect tasting sauces conquer my memories - who I was with and what we talked about becomes a muted background to the food.

We also strolled through Daikanyama and went to the fancy cafe upstairs in Tsutaya for a glass of whisky:

On the last day, we walked around Asakusa and then took a boat down to Odaiba. We stopped off at Sumida park (which embarrassingly I had never even heard of), which I found to be a perfect example of a Japanese garden - of which Steve was captured by - with its perfectly tended greenery, no leaf out of place, wooden footbridges arched over ponds and Japanese tea houses dotted around. I don't think this picture I took captures this well, but it's all I can find for now: