I never wrote a post here about Tokyo.  There are photos on Facebook and Instagram (lynne2724) but nothing here!!

So, we’ve been back in Wellington for a month and I’m back at uni but I’ll round out the story.  Clearly we made it home in one piece despite slow progress through some very big airports.  The officials at Tokyo Narita were great when we arrived, opening a counter so we could be processed with no delay which meant no standing around for John with his gammy knee.

John had a very quiet time in Tokyo, enjoying the superb service on the business floor of the Ritz Carlton (where snacks and drinks are free) while I used the Tokyo metro to visit Tomato (two buildings of multiple floors of sewing notions, fabric and all the crafty stuff you can imagine) at Shinjuku.  Shinjuku Railway Station is enormous and confusing – and while I managed to get out of it and find Tomato, finding my way back to the right metro line platforms was another thing entirely and I wound up walking underground as far as a connecting metro station and was guided by a very friendly metro helper to the right platform.

We did do our pre-booked Tokyo food tour – beginning at another enormous station – Shibuya – and guided by an expat kiwi who was a long term Tokyo resident.  Despite John’s knee we had a great time and ate some very challeging (for us) food including very fresh and authentic (read raw) sushi, raw fugu fish in a specialist restaurant (chefs train for years in how to prepare it as parts of it kill you!), multiple different kinds of miso pastes, freshly made rice crackers from a traditional artisan maker, and beers and char-grilled chicken at a traditional izakaya in the Tokyo ‘burbs. It was a great experience and given we didn’t know a lot about japanese foods, very enlightening.  And as there were only the two of us we could take our time.

On our final day the temperature was mid 30s but felt hotter as it was humid too – I took myself off to the National Art Centre to see an exhibition of paitings on loan from the Lourve – and while it was very close to our hotel I was melting by the time I’d got there and queued outside for my ticket.  After that I took the metro to a nearby suburb in search of traditional japanese textiles.  Thank goodness for Google maps – even obscure shops are findable!

So, it wasn’t what we planned but between the food tour, a meal at Longrain Tokyo – the japanese outpost of a well regarded Australian asian restaurant which was amazing, the care taken of John by the folk at the hotel and my solo explorations, we managed to have a good time.

John is recuperating – the initial diagnosis was a meniscus tear but now it seems more likely it was a hamstring tear, damage to the lateral ligament in the knee and a sprained ankle.  He’s on the mend and has been off the foldable walking stick we got in Dollar for a few weeks.  We are off to the Barossa Valley for a trip on a restored paddle steamer with friends in two weeks and are hoping he’s more confident on stairs by then.

I’ll do a separate post with some Tokyo photos.