Today was supposed to be a free day in the schedule for the others to do whatever they wanted in Tokyo.
So what happens?
We spend most of it on the other side of the country to Tokyo.
It begins with a trip to Hatsudai, one stop on the Keio Line beyond Shinjuku, which we get to via the connecting Shinjuku Subway Line from Akihabara. This quaint little suburb houses the only Kanten Papa outlet in Tokyo.
Kanten Papa are a Nagano food manufacturer responsible for the 80°C flavoured agar jelly and other food products made out of seaweed. We really like the jelly, but it seems to have disappeared from Japanese supermarket shelves over the past few years.
Hatsudai is a wonderfully quaint and very local suburb that could be a thousand kilometres away from crazy central Shinjuku. The store is nondescript, located off the main road, but has shelves packed with their products and a little cafe to the side.
We emerge with my backpack full of sachets for jelly, pudding and soup.
Where to next?
“I haven’t had my seafood yet!” say the other two.
I suggest Choshi, on the Boso Peninsula, so I can cross the Choshi Railway off my bucket list.
But no, they want crab.
“I’m sure we can find somewhere in Tokyo.”
“No, it’ll be too expensive!”
Okay, we’ll catch the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Toyama.
One ride on the Keio Line to Shinjuku, change trains to the JR Shonan Shinjuku Line and a long ride to Omiya. At Omiya, just enough time to buy ekiben and sandwiches for lunch before we pull out on the Shinkansen, riding in the unreserved section. Initially we are separated but soon get three seats together.
It’s the same type of Shinkansen as yesterday, but this time going via Nagano after Takasaki. There are glimpses of snow and, from around Itoigawa, the Japan Sea. It’s grey and rainy. I only have a thin jumper on, my snow clothes are in the wash.
After about three hours after Hatsudai, we reach Toyama. It’s too early to eat again yet, but I suggest we visit the Toyama Glass Art Museum, as recommended by Reuben Schade’s blog.
Being a Melbourne boy I cannot resist a tram ride, the single car a bit of an oddity in these days of articulated trams. We pass the red Manten Hotel where we stayed a night many years ago.
The Glass Art Museum is an impressive six floor building with a slatted wooden interior with views upwards. There is a gift shop, cafe, library and bookshop on different levels, but the primary purpose is for the exhibition of glass art.
You are supposed to start from the Glass Garden on the sixth floor and work your way down. The garden features works by Dale Chihuly, huge colourful twisting exotic glass plants and flowers, balls and other shapes. They are impressive and beautiful, worth the (small) entry fee.
We’ve only paid for the basic entry, so while we can admire the works of Frenchman Emile Galle and others, only Alex, as a high school student has free entry to the 50 year retrospective exhibition, which he seems to enjoy.
The glass artworks for sale in the gift shop are very nice, but too expensive and fragile to consider bringing home.
It starts to spit with rain outside and is getting cold. Returning to Toyama Station on another tram, our bottoms get toasted on the heated seats.
I find a seafood restaurant at the northern end of the station building, one with live crabs arrayed outside, but B is not happy and says they are too expensive.
So we traipse to the other end and the Maroot shopping centre building, where you can order a seafood meal from the machines at the rear of the food market at Uohiro and they will prepare it for you.
We order three donburi sets. B has crab legs and a seafood soup on a burner she has to ignite herself (ask us to do for her), Alex has sashimi, and I eat the local speciality of tempura white shrimp. We all enjoy it, though I am distracted by trying to book our ride back again.
A quick trip to Muji in the same building, buying more snacks, and a station konbini to purchase omiyage (for ourselves), we have to get the ticket machine to spit out our reservations. Which means using both the JR Pass and the passport, which can be painful, especially with our passes on two separate bookings.
While we wait on the platform Alex tries ordering a can of miso clam soup from a vending machine. It gives him a can of corn soup, so he tries the adjacent option and gets the right one. That’s the second time it has happened to him this trip!
I prefer the corn soup, though be warned it can give you the runs.
Now it’s a matter of catching the Shinkansen back. Unlike the Tokaido and Tohoku Shinkansen trains, the Hokuriku Shinkansen still has a trolley service. I cannot resist purchasing the famous ice cream, though I give it enough time to melt from its stone-like state.
The vanilla is excellent, like a premium ice cream back home. A great antidote to the seafood flavours and the soups.
The Japanese nightscape flashes past. I love the colourful neon of family diners, pachinko parlours, supermarkets and gyms on the outskirts of cities, the izakaya and hotels closer to their centres. Pockets of life in the darkness.
We pull into Tokyo Station, change to the Yamanote Line and make our way back to Akihabara, almost twelve hours since we left. Alex plays a couple of drum and music games at a Namco Station, then we join the intoxicated in walking back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we farewell Tokyo. I feel like we barely saw it this trip.