I braved the summer heat and humidity and headed off to Tokyo to see one of my closest friends, this has been by far one of my best trips (largely due to a perfect itinerary planned by said closest friend). Looking at my pictures, it looked like all I did in Tokyo was drink tea and perfect eating with chopsticks, that sounds about right.
Tokyo is a beautiful buzzing city with something for everyone, from all the tourist attractions, to malls, designer shops, anime, delicious food and of course the friendly, smiling locals that ride bikes almost everywhere. One of the many highlights from my trip was taking part in a traditional tea ceremony at a snazzy hotel. What most people don’t realize is that a traditional Japanese tea ceremony represents harmony, respect, purity and tranquility. There is an entire process from preparing the equipment to drinking green tea in a traditional tearoom with a tatami floor. The whole experience looked so elegant and certainly one I would love to do again.
One of the other things I truly loved was visiting a bathhouse or sento. It is exactly what you are thinking, a public bathhouse where you shower first and then get into a large warm tub. The idea behind this (according to Google) was that in the past many homes in Japan weren’t equipped with a bathtub and so to remedy this, neighbourhoods would have a public bath where locals could wash themselves, soak in a tub and socialize. I thoroughly enjoyed this relaxing experience and would love a trip to the hot springs on my next visit to Tokyo.
Another highlight was visiting Meiji Jingu Shrine which is in the middle of a forest. What I loved the most here was the option of writing your wishes/prayers on an ema tablet for special personal prayers and gratitude.
Sitting back and reflecting about this trip, I realize that this blog post was hard to write, there were more highlights and more happy memories. I can’t wait to see Tokyo again, my chopstick skills are now questionable and there is more tea and baumkuchen (a German cake popular in Japan) to be had!
