We'd loved our 1 week trip to Hong Kong, but were happy to be in Tokyo, which is starting to feel almost like home. The contrast to Hong Kong is striking - Tokyo may be one of the world's largest cities, but it still feels like quite a peaceful place to live. We are already dreading the not-too-distant moment in time when we will have to leave...
Anyway, in spite of being quite tired after our trip to Hong Kong, we decided to head off and explore Tokyo for a bit - after all, the sun was out, and as mentioned before, we had little time left in Tokyo. After doing some research in guidebooks and on the internet, we decided to explore Ebisu - a part of Tokyo we're not familiar with at all.
Ebisu, which was named after the Yebisu brewery that used to be located here (the brewery has now become a big shopping complex, there is still a museum dedicated to the historical brew there, though), is these days one of the trendiest parts of Tokyo. We started our tour at the Ebisu train station, vaguely following a walking tour we found on the internet, but mostly just walking around randomly. We could quite quickly confirm that it's rather trendy and "bobo" (a French term which I'm not sure is really translatable into English, look it up on the internet ;) ), and also that it's a very nice part of Tokyo (does that mean we are bobos?).
We enjoyed a very bobo lunch indeed (I had a veggie burger and a smoothie, would you believe it?), and then headed off to check out the rather cool Yebisu Garden Place. This is actually where the afore-mentioned beer brewery used to be located, it has since been converted into a very pleasant place, containing fancy restaurants (including a 3 Michelin Star place by Joel Rebouchon), shops, gardens, cafes and a photography museum (which we visited - very interesting place indeed!).
After randomly walking around, checking out the vibe of the 'hood, we ended up visiting the Old Asakura family house. This property, built in 1919, is a rare example of Taisho era architecture. Most of historic Tokyo was destroyed either in the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, or during Allied bombings during WWII. This property is rather interesting in that it combines elements of traditional Japanese architecture, but with some Western influence (the early 20th century was a period during which Japan rapidly modernized, and took on western influence). The gardens around the house are also very beautiful. Certainly worth the 100 Yen entrance fee!
We then continued exploring bobo-land, checking out the trendy shops around the Daianyama area - we rather liked the nordic-seeming Log Road "shopping district", and in particular the wonderful Tsutaya book shop (this chain has a really working concept which basically combines a cafe with a great collection of books - one could easily spend a day in these places!)
We finished our exploration of Ebisu by having, believe it or not, pizza! Usually, we strive to have Japanese food in Japan, but we read about this place called Isa, which serves authentic Naples-style pizza. Somewhat skeptical, we still decided to go. Woe and behold, their pizza really was pretty damn good, and very much in the Naples style indeed. Apart from the fact that all the waiters and the chef were Japanese, one could almost have imagined having been in Italy. Apparently the chef had one some Pizza World Championship award in Italy - well deserved if you ask me! Mind you, the pizza was rather a lot more expensive than in Naples...
Ebisu, which was named after the Yebisu brewery that used to be located here (the brewery has now become a big shopping complex, there is still a museum dedicated to the historical brew there, though), is these days one of the trendiest parts of Tokyo. We started our tour at the Ebisu train station, vaguely following a walking tour we found on the internet, but mostly just walking around randomly. We could quite quickly confirm that it's rather trendy and "bobo" (a French term which I'm not sure is really translatable into English, look it up on the internet ;) ), and also that it's a very nice part of Tokyo (does that mean we are bobos?).
We enjoyed a very bobo lunch indeed (I had a veggie burger and a smoothie, would you believe it?), and then headed off to check out the rather cool Yebisu Garden Place. This is actually where the afore-mentioned beer brewery used to be located, it has since been converted into a very pleasant place, containing fancy restaurants (including a 3 Michelin Star place by Joel Rebouchon), shops, gardens, cafes and a photography museum (which we visited - very interesting place indeed!).
We finished our exploration of Ebisu by having, believe it or not, pizza! Usually, we strive to have Japanese food in Japan, but we read about this place called Isa, which serves authentic Naples-style pizza. Somewhat skeptical, we still decided to go. Woe and behold, their pizza really was pretty damn good, and very much in the Naples style indeed. Apart from the fact that all the waiters and the chef were Japanese, one could almost have imagined having been in Italy. Apparently the chef had one some Pizza World Championship award in Italy - well deserved if you ask me! Mind you, the pizza was rather a lot more expensive than in Naples...
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