Planning our days on vacation starts with one crucial question: “Where do we want to eat?” Once we know that, we then look at what we can do around each of our culinary destinations. Parks, shrines, museums and the like are really something to occupy our brains until it’s time to delight our taste buds.
Tokyo is a large city with multiple options for public transit (various companies operate different transit lines), with some covered by the JR rail pass and others not. Our plans for the day involved a fair bit of transit.
First, in our day, we wanted to go for tempura. As a breakfast option, it’s a bit surprising, but it’s no less healthy than pancakes or waffles. Since the restaurant only opened at 11:30, we found a shrine a 20-minute walk away and enjoyed a little bit of forest and plants. You would think a shrine is more about its historically and religiously significant location, and you would be right, but it’s very much underwhelming as a northerner. It is hard to connect with a place's spirituality without deeply understanding its culture, and it’s also full of people taking selfies in front of the building. It takes away from the ambiance a little. However, these shrines are often at the center of a park that was once the estate of an important figure. To us, the true beauty of the place lies in the park itself, with tall, mature trees, a little wildlife (on our visit, we met a crane), and some flowers if you’re in season.
From the shrine, we stopped for tempura (the main attraction). The restaurant at the Keio Plaza Hotel was recommended by one of Karine’s friends and did not disappoint. Everything was prepared with great care from a limited menu. Instead of getting it all in one big serving, you get small portions multiple times, so you never get soggy, cold tempura.
After getting our fill, we made our way to the National Museum of Western Art. Their permanent collection is something to behold. There’s a room full of Monets, an extensive collection of Rodin sculptures, one Van Gogh (always a pleasure to meet a Van Gogh in person) and several Picassos. It was also an excellent place for us to learn about purism.
What’s purism, you might ask? It’s a movement of painting started by what seems like two very pretentious people who thought art should be reformed. The thing is, the movement bears an uncanny resemblance to cubism, which predates it. A vast majority of the paintings you’ll see from Le Corbusier (one of two pretentious dudes) can be summarized as multiple iterations of the same set of bottles. That said, it created an excellent opportunity to showcase some Picasso works alongside it for comparison.
Our final stop of the day was at Sasuga in Ginza. It’s a Michelin-star restaurant that, for a very decent 40$, will give you two excellent soba noodle bowls or platters with dipping sauce if you like your soba cold. Our original plan was to try one of the two Michelin-star ramen restaurants, but the review describing hour-long waits discouraged us a bit.
