Japan

Cape Soya: The most northern point of Japan

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On day 2 of our northern Hokkaido road trip, we were up early and on the road again by just after 8am. We woke up in our hostel and checked out the view over Wakkanai. I was surprised by how big the town was. I was expecting a tiny nothing town.

From Cape Soya

Sea views. Not bad for a youth hostel.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

The hostel looked run down from the outside but was pleasantly nice and modest on the inside. For 20buks (2100yen), can’t really complain.

From Cape Soya

Packed up the car and we were on our way.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

From Wakkanai town, it’s only a 30minute drive to Cape Soya – which is the most northern point in Japan. Can’t get any more norther than that! It was nice scenic drive along the coast line.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

We saw a lot of fishermen out in shallow waters, all in full body wetsuits collecting some kind of seafood. These northern coastal towns have a thriving fishing industry.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

And then finally we reached our destination! Cape Soya. The most northern point in Japan. Woo hoo! That’s what I’m talking about.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

We got to the peak probably a tad before 9am. It was beautiful sunny day, although a little fresh.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

It was rather exciting to be standing there at the point. We could also see out to Russia – Sakhalin. We could make out the land mass beyond the sea. Sakhalin is only 43km from this Cape.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

Along with all the other people, we waited our turn to get the obligatory photo standing at the tip of Japan.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

It doesn’t get much north than this. Literally some rocks, and then the ocean out to Ohktohsk sea and you’re on your way swimming to Russia.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

Japan meets Russia:

From Cape Soya

For a bit of extra novelty, here are the most northern toilets in the whole of Japan. Unfortunately, I did not leave a piece of me behind.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

There is also of course, a souvenir shop.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

At 9:30am it was 12 degrees. And the coordinates of our location were displayed out the front, showing that we were indeed at the most northern point in Japan. We then went for a walk atop of the hill to look out onto the sea and get a higher view of the cape. There’s a little peace memorial park with some monuments atop of the hill.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

We saw a fox up there which was pretty cool. It’s leg was a bit injured because it limped about, which is why I was able to get photos of it without the fox running away.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

So much excitement for one day, or rather one hour. Our day had barely begun. More photos at the top. A few cool monuments to check out and great views out to sea.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

You can faintly make out the outline of Russia in the distance in this photo. Better seen with the naked eye than through a camera lens though.

From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya
From Cape Soya

There’s also a tiny little shrine at the Cape as well.

From Cape Soya

That was our morning at Cape Soya (Soya misaki). Not even 10am yet and I had checked off another item off the Japan bucketlist. Drove on back down to Wakkanai for the next part of our Hokkaido adventure.

Hokkaido roadtrippin’ and Tiffany tea (Day 1)

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We just had a long weekend here, so I headed on up back to Hokkaido for a road trip. Our destination: THE most northern point in Japan! On Friday morning, I woke up early and was on the first flight out, up to Sapporo.

From Road trip north
From Road trip north

Arrived in Hokkaido, and got the train into Sapporo where I was meeting Fi and Debs to begin our road trip. Perfect timing as their car pulled up right as I was exiting Sapporo station. A long drive ahead from Sapporo to Wakkanai. Was feeling like I had a cold coming on so I grabbed a Vitamin C drink for the road. This was a bit excessive though. The equivalent of 50 lemons’ worth of Vitamin C. Either lemons contain very little vitamin C, or I was about to OD on the vitamin.

From Road trip north

Hokkaido has such beautiful scenery. It’s God’s gift to cyclists. Lots of flat terrain that stretch on forever over vast expanses of green fields and rice farms – popular with cyclists and runners.

From Road trip north

We made several conbini stops for toilets and snacks. Did you know there are a ridiculous number of Seicomarts in Hokkaido! We must have passed a good few dozen over the long weekend. We stopped for a late lunch at Big Boy – a hamburger steak restaurant with salad bar! Just a family chain restaurant which wasn’t too bad.

From Road trip north
From Road trip north
From Road trip north

Fi and Debs posing with the Big Boy:

From Road trip north

Fi and Debs are friends from my days when I lived in Hirafu (Niseko, Hokkaido). Fi now lives in Sapporo and Debs still lives in Hirafu. More scenes from our Hokkaido road trip up north.

From Road trip north
From Road trip north
From Road trip north

We spent 11 hours on the road on that Friday! Lots of conversation, some napping in the backseat on my part, a few pit stops along the way, some Glee music to pass the time. We took only the main roads and avoided the toll roads (which would have gotten us there faster). Going north, we took the central inland Hokkaido route. The drive should have only taken us 6 hours, but we drove 2 hours off-route. We were so close to the peak…and then we found ourselves taking a wrong turn and driving 2 hours back south! Yabai! It was dark, and around 7:30ish. We had been on the road since 10am. We pulled into a random hotel to get directions. We also had no accommodation planned. We had tents and sleeping bags and were planning on just camping somewhere. But it was also pretty cold up north. At the hotel we stopped at, we rang around for some hotels near Wakkanai to stay at.

We consulted the Lonely Planet book I had carried along (for emergency use). The first hostel in Wakkanai wouldn’t take us because it was already 7:30pm and we were still two hours away, and we were pretty much just booking then. Tried another youth hostel in Wakkanai, and they told us we could stay there only if we got there and checked in before 9:30pm. It was already after 7:30pm and we had over 120km to get to Wakkanai! We put the pedal to the metal and arrived in Wakkanai just after 9pm. And we didn’t really know how to get to the youth hostel. We called up the guy at the youth hostel to get directions and to kind of stall him, so that if we arrived after 9:30pm he’d let us in. We arrived at the youth hostel literally right on 9:30pm! What a blessing. We had lodgings for the night after 11 hours on the road, including 2 hours of “being lost”.

This was the best youth hostel I’ve ever stayed in. It was pretty palatial for a backpacker joint. They had either dorms or private rooms. Private rooms being more expensive. We opted for the dorms, but I swear the room we were in had to be the private rooms. It was basically a self-service apartment. There was a dining room, our own shower, own washing machine, fridge, microwave, kettle, and stove, tv, and a tatami mat room that could sleep 5-6 people. All self-contained and private. I couldn’t get over how nice it was! And for 20 buks each for the night.

From Road trip north
From Road trip north
From Road trip north
From Road trip north

What followed next was a most awesome surprise! So, Fi knows how much I love afternoon tea and so she had packed her own little afternoon tea for us. I had no idea. Bless her. She had brought along some fancy cakes, teabags, and even really nice mugs so we could enjoy a proper cup of tea. And these weren’t any ordinary tea cups. These were Tiffany & Co tea mugs!!!! She had packed along a set of cups nicely wrapped in a box. (The Tiffany & Co mugs were a set that she had received as a gift for attending a wedding). How awesome is that. I’m not much of a jewelry wearer or into labels, but Tiffany mugs are pretty special! And after a long, long day of sitting in a car, roadtripping up Hokkaido, a cup of tea was a welcome treat, as was a little Youth Hostel afternoon tea, courtesy of Fi. (Thanks, Fi!!!)

From Tiffany Tea

How cool are the Tiffany mugs – in their signature blue with the ribbon as well! And they, of course, came in a cool Tiffany box! Cups of tea for three:

From Tiffany Tea

I so want to get me a Tiffany mug. I know they’re just mugs, and it’s not like they were spectacularly designed mugs, but still fancy nevertheless. I googled the Tiffany website today. The mugs are not available on the Japan or Australia site…but you can get them on the US website. They cost 35buks! And I think that was for one mug…although it could have been for a pair.

From Tiffany Tea

It was so thoughtful for Fi to do this. So we sat down to tea and cakes in our fancy youth hostel.

From Tiffany Tea
From Tiffany Tea
From Tiffany Tea

We crashed out and fell asleep soon after. We were all utterly exhausted. Day 1 of the northern Hokkaido road trip was mostly driving. We were officially in Wakkanai – which is the biggest most northern town in Hokkaido and Japan. Wakkanai had been on my Japan bucketlist for a while – even though I’ve lived in Hokkaido twice, I never managed to get up there. Tick. It’s also a cool name for a place. The next day is when the real adventures began, as evidenced by the 500 photos that I took. Plenty more installments to come from the Hokkaido roadtrip.

Sky views: Mori Tower

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Because the Sky Aquarium was on level 52 of the Mori Tower and because the ticket included entry to the Mori Tower observatory/sky view – what better opportunity to go check out the view. Normally, it costs 1500yen alone just to go up there! Great views to be had from level 52. If you time it to go in the late afternoon, you get the daytime view and then watch it get dark so you see the night light view as well. The sky was clear on Monday night so we got decent views.

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Tokyo is such a metropolis. So dense. So many buildings. So big. So wide.

From Mori Sky View

The space up at the top of the Mori Tower is spacious and wide, but plenty of people around, especially on a public holiday.

From Mori Sky View

There was also a small clownfish fish tank – I think this was just a temporary installment for the Sky Aquarium.

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Flying Fish:

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Uninterrupted views of Tokyo Tower (modeled on the Eiffel Tower).

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Slowly got darker. It was fun to see all the lights being gradually switched on…

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Got a good arial view of the National Art Centre:

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

And then we got the night light view:

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

There’s a cafe/bar up there that sells a great selection of teas, and gelato! Highly recommend the gelato! 2 scoops for 500yen! The hazelnut gelato was delightful!

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Sit and enjoy whilst soaking up the view.

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

Night views of Tokyo Tower. It really stands out of a night time when it’s all lit up. I heard that they’re tearing this down in a few years…

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

It’s hard to take photos of lights at night off of reflecting glass. I tried to do a reflection thing with the tower and the glass window with a random couple. It kinda turned out not too bad. The couple were actually really good models for this shot.

From Mori Sky View
From Mori Sky View

This week has actually been a short week, dubbed a mini ‘Silver week”. Monday was a public holiday, as will be tomorrow (Friday). So only three days of work this week. I can live with that. Two back-to-back long weekends – yay, marked with a typhoon in the middle. Will be going away tomorrow for the long weekend, pending any disruptions/national disasters.

Always be prepared

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What a crazy day it’s been. The excitement in Japan never ceases. And by ‘excitement’, I mean natural disasters. A huge, intense typhoon battered central Japan today and now making its way up north…but not before passing through Tokyo. Everyone had been waiting in anticipation for it, and not in a good way. More bracing ourselves for it.

Yesterday/last night, both the Canadian and Australian embassies issued alert warnings via email. I’ve been living in Japan for 6 years and never have I received an alert for typhoon reasons…and there’s usually a dozen or so typhoons a year in Japan. This one was expected to be a doozy. We had some heavy rain overnight as the typhoon made its way east and north.

Today was windy, rainy…but for most of the morning…nothing too intense. By afternoon/early evening, the typhoon hit Tokyo. It was expected to hit between 3-6pm. And it delivered. Most companies were letting people go home early….but not early enough. Around 3-4pm is when most people who wanted to leave early left…but that was when all the trains shut down. So many train lines all went down around 3.30pm leaving masses of people stranded at train stations unable to get home. I, on the other hand was at work, in the office. One – there was a lot of work that needed to be done. It was crazy busy today. Not to mention that we’re shortstaffed at the moment. And secondly, no point in trying to leave the office only to be stranded at the station – this happened on the day of the earthquake. In my attempt to leave early and head for the airport…I was stuck underground at Tokyo station for 8 hours! Better to stay indoors. Quite a few people tried to leave, only to return back to the office and wait it out instead. Train lines were down, and even once they were back up, they were going to be delayed and backlogged by millions of Tokyoites all wanting to get home. Some intense crazy winds whipped through Tokyo. Even our office building was shaking from the wind! Ploughed through work which kept us busy, but was able to work shorter hours thanks to the typhoon. Didn’t want to be stuck in the office all night. Trains eventually started running again…albeit delayed and not to any schedule. Some are out of action altogether. Was lucky to get home without too much drama…apart from the fact that the trains were more crowded than usual! What an insane day.

The typhoon stuck around a few hours and is now headed north. That’s a cause for concern because it’s going to batter Tohoku which has had more than enough damage and wreckage. It also appears that I may be following the typhoon (or is it following me?) because I am actually due to fly to Hokkaido on Friday morning. I’m hoping that the typhoon is done with by tomorrow…but there is a possibility that it may reach Hokkaido on Friday. I think it will go out to sea though. The airports were in chaos with practically all domestic flights cancelled today. With the typhoon having passed, through Tokyo at least, I am expecting hot humid weather to follow for the next week or so. I’ve observed that intense hot days follow after a typhoon. I don’t know why (care to shed any light on that, Alex?!) Got home fine tonight after seeing out the typhoon at the office. But on my way home I saw a lot of abandoned umbrellas. They were no match for these winds. Not much later after I had gotten home…there was an earthquake! Geez. Never a dull moment in Japan. I had actually secretly been worried about this all day – I knew the typhoon was coming, but what if we also got an earthquake at the same time. We still get multiple baby earthquakes everyday. The apartment started shaking slightly…and at first, I couldn’t tell whether it was because of the typhoon winds (which had subsided) or an actual earthquake. Turned out to be 5.3 magnitude earthquake at the source. Not so bad in Tokyo though. I’ve become super, super sensitive to shakes and earthquakes. I can usually feel even the slightest of earthquakes. Sometimes my own heartbeat/pulse keeps me awake at night and I mistake it for a slight earth tremor. Central Japan has suffered a lot of damage as a result of this typhoon – the news footage has been intense – with much flooding.

These natural disasters are taking its toll on the landscape and the economy here. It’s been a wild weather day here, yet things in Tokyo, will go back to normal tomorrow. With all these natural disasters…it’s important to be prepared for anything! That’s why it’s necessary to have an emergency kit or emergency supplies on hand. I am a super organized person..bordering on obsessively organised. I’m a planner. I make lists to make lists. I have a very serious obsession/addiction to making lists! “Always be prepared” was the Boy Scout motto. I was actually a Brownie – of the Girl Guide variety and not the edible chocolate kind, when I was a young girl in primary school. Our motto was LAH – Lend A Hand. I much preferred the Boy Scout motto. So after the March earthquake, I made sure to prepare a little emergency kit. I kind of haphazardly put stuff together with stuff around the apartment, and haven’t really updated it since.

From Emergency kit

Here’s what it contains:

– 4 small packet of tissues (doubles as toilet paper)

– wet tissue/wipes

– honey lollies

– packet of gummie bears

– plastic bag

– 2 mini bottles of water

– 2 packets of Calorie mate (nutrition bars)

– 1 packet Prune/dried raisin biscuits

– 2 bandanas (useful as a cloth, hanky, sling etc)

– A packet of sesame bars

– facewasher

– onsen towel (a small body towel)

– a pencil

– a pen

– notebook

– photocopy of my Gaijin card (identity card that is mandatory for foreigners in Japan)

– a little keychain watch (I don’t own a watch so I’ll need to know what the time is)

– Hokkairo (heat patch)

– Plastic cup

– a fork

– spare empty ziplock bag

– Rain poncho

– box of matches (but no candles…must add that to the shopping list and get me some)

– a tiny medical kit (containing: eye mask, face mask, bandaids, toothbrush, cotton buds, Advil, feminine hygiene products – I’ve put these into a little Qantas airline kit that you get free on airplanes.)

– Sudoku puzzles (pages ripped out from a Sudoku book – figured it was a way to kill time without being electricity-generated entertainment.)

This all fits nicely into one very small portable drawstring cloth bag (about half the size of a pillow) which is easy to pick up in a hurry should I ever need to evacuate. I keep it right by the door in the genkan, so I only have to pick it up on my way out the door.

From Emergency kit
From Emergency kit

I also keep 2L Bottled water by the door as well. I only drink tap water at home…but safe to have bottled water as well, especially after the radiation scares that we had. So that’s all the stuff that I would have in a pinch. At any given time, I also have a handbag and that also holds further essentials, like my iPhone, purse, camera, other bits and bobs, and a torch. I have a small torch wherever I go. It’s basically survival stuff that would get me through 2-3 days if needed before getting on a flight back home, if for example I was stuck in an evacuation centre or the airport for a few days.

Stuff like the laptop, clothes and all other possessions would most likely get left behind if needed. At the end of the day, it’s all replaceable. I have backed up the majority of my photos on online photo albums (I have just under 400 albums saved on Picasa!)…so things like my photos on my hard drive would be ok to leave behind. A lot of photos are also on this blog…so that’s kinda nice too to have. Other important docs I have saved in my email account and Dropbox – if I were to leave behind my computer. The laptop and the SLR camera would probably be the two tangible possessions I most care about. I also leave my passport in an accessible place to grab in an emergency. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Having an emergency kit though is only fine when you’re at home. But when disaster strikes…most likely you’ll be at work or out somewhere, and not in the comfort and safety of your own house. I really should also prepare a mini-kit for my desk at work.

After the March earthquake, I did put some small emergency things in place. I always keep a bottle of water on my desk that I don’t touch – it’s to grab in an emergency. I also keep a pair of old sneakers under my desk in case I ever have to walk home from work – not much fun in heels or work shoes. I keep a toothbrush and toothpaste and some snacks in my drawers (the furnitute kind not my briefs) as well. And again, my handbag will always be with me, so I’ll have my torch, purse, phone etc with me. I should put together a proper kit though…especially considering I’m always at work when all this stuff happens! There’s more stuff that I should add to my kit, but you’ve also got to keep it portable. The idea is to not take the whole apartment with you, as tempting as that is! I remembered reading this timely article (I am follower of this blog) and if you read through all the comments, there are some great suggestions in there. It was good stuff for me to consider. And yeah, I saw that movie too, so it really does make you think what is essential for survival but at the same time keeping it to a minimum. You’ve got to brace yourself for anything these days it seems. My kit is kind of a work-in-progress. Is there anything else that I must add to it??

Onjuku OWS – not a race report

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I thought that by the end of today, I was gonna be able to post up another ows race report. But you, like me, are SOL today. Instead of a race report you get a whinge session. Try to contain your excitement, please.

I am totally bummed out right now and have no one to whinge to, so this blog bears the brunt of it today. I don’t like to vent too much on this blog, but today I’m gonna make an exception. It’s a long weekend here in Japan, because Monday is a public holiday. I made plans not to do anything this weekend, because I was going to compete in an open water swim race today. I was almost going to enter in two races – one on Saturday and one on Sunday. But the one on Sunday was going to cost me 100buks just in entry fee alone, so I opted just for the Saturday one. Today I was supposed to do a race at Onjuku beach. 3.84km. I had been really looking forward to it. I haven’t done a race since back in July, so was keen to race, and was also keen to do another open water session before Turkey.

Last night (Friday), at around 7:30pm I got an email from today’s race organizers saying that they had cancelled the event! The reason – “bad water conditions”. Yeah, it was raining a little last night…but not so heavy as to cancel the event. They should have made that decision in the morning! It’s been 30 degrees all week, and I pretty much knew that the weekend would be fine. It’s been nothing but hot all summer. It’s an open water swim race – let’s face it, we’re going to get wet anyway…so even in light rain, the event should go ahead. A few raindrops aren’t going to harm any swimmers. We’re used to getting wet and cold and being in rough water. So they made the decision last night to cancel the event. I was so bummed. It was way too early to make such a call. It had better pour torrential rain all day on the Saturday, I thought to myself. “Bad water conditions” – what did that mean exactly….that’s not the same as bad weather conditions. Are they talking about polluted, contaminated water, or just high waves. How could they have known the water conditions for today, last night to make such a call.

And it comes as no surprise to me that, of course, today is not wet or raining at all. No impending typhoon or tsunami, so the race could totally have been on. It’s actually ideal weather conditions for a swim race. In fact, the temp range for today over in Chiba prefecture is 26-31 degrees. Right now, at just after 11am it’s 31 degrees, with a very, small chance of rain, although today will be both sunny and cloudy. I’m sitting at home with the ac on, very much wishing that I was out swimming in a race today. So, yeah, to say I’m disappointed would be an understatement! Especially, it being a long weekend, and I forwent other plans so I could stick around to compete in this race, on this now glorious, sunny hot day! Am also disappointed because I had done a lot of preparation for this race. I had my swim bag already packed on the Friday. Look, I had even frozen 5 drink bottles (water and sports drink) so they could withstand the heat and stay cooler, longer. I would probably drink a litre of it before the race, and than another couple of litres afterwards. Just shy of 4km, I was gonna need all this!

From Random Saturday

In amongst those drinks, I even purchased a sports drink during the week called ‘Thorpedo’ – presumably named after Ian Thorpe? It’s made by Yakult though…the company that makes that bacterial cultured yoghurt…so I’m not sure how it would taste. It’s low GI though and says that it’s diet sports water. I thought it was hilarious and had secretly hoped it would make me swim like Thorpedo. Now it will have to be consumed in vain.

From Random Saturday

The course map of the race I did not swim (I would have been swimming the long 3.84km red course – a full return length of the whole beach bay area): Not to mention the training. I didn’t actually train a lot this week per se as I was easing back a little, but the prior week, I had been training for this swim. Oh, and the fact that I had paid over 7000yen to enter the race, which they have now just pocketed! No refund, and no offer of a free entry for next year’s race. So bye-bye 7000yen – that would have been enough for two high teas! So, yeah, I’m bummed. The ocean is free…so I’m not sure where or whom that money is going to…. They are however giving us a free t-shirt which they will post out to us for those that want one. Yay, a t-shirt proclaiming a race, that we didn’t even swim in! I use all these race t-shirts as pillow covers anyway. Considering that the weather today is awesome, and dare I say, even a little too hot for comfort, I would much rather be swimming and competing in the actual race that I paid for! On the otherhand, it does mean I have the whole day free to do absolutely nothing! Hence the time to write this whinge session. Looking on the bright side, I now have the whole long weekend to do whatever I want. Mostly bumming around home me thinks. Have a lot of preparation I need to do for Turkey, a bit of housecleaning, I’ll swim at the pool instead…and no doubt, I will find something else exciting and impromptu to do over the next few days off. I’m also looking to buy an underwater (waterproof) digital camera so might do window shopping. I am having trouble deciding which camera to buy. Any recommendations, let me know. A picture of a bag I saw in a store once. I loved the slogan on it!

From Random Saturday

Art Aquarium Part II

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I always knew there was something fishy about aquariums. Suspicions confirmed. Here are some more photos of more fish from the super cool Art Aquarium Exhibition. These pics were taken on my pocket digital camera, after the SLR camera battery died. I love this pic! “Watcha looking at?”

From Goldfish Art

The lighting was pretty spectacular, as were the showcase diamond fish tanks:

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

The giant fishbowl was perhaps a little too crowded for all the goldfish. Talk about too many sardines in a can.

From Goldfish Art

Pretty spectacular stuff.

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

Definitely need some chips to go with all this fish!

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

The third part of the gallery was some more interesting aquariums and light features. There was a kaleidoscope aquarium. You could look through these prisms and watch the fish swim by.

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

Now, these look like ordinary lamps, right. They were actually lamp fish tanks and there were fish swimming inside them!

From Goldfish Art

This was a lamp aquarium…except I didn’t capture any fish in it.

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

The whole point of the Goldfish Art was to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Bridge in Nihonbashi (where the exhibit was on at). Nihonbashi is an area of Tokyo famous for its bridge. Apparently, goldfish have played an important part in Japanese history and culture since the Edo period, as depicted in various artworks through history. The exhibition was dubbed the “Kingyo’s Coolness” (Kingyo is Japanese for ‘goldfish’). Here were some Edo-style paintings which were displayed showing how golfish have appeared in Japanese art.

From Goldfish Art

The last part of the exhibition, was also another highlight. They had a Japanese folding glass screen – but inside it were more goldfish swimming around. It was a fish tank folding screen. Again the lights changed colours and they had some cool silhouette projector screen happening, so the images on the screen would keep changing as the goldfish swam about. Really, really clever. The artist had a great vision with this exhibit.

From Goldfish Art

Up close, it was a fish tank!

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

Over the next couple of photos, you can see the background silhouette change…

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

Took a nice side angle shot.

From Goldfish Art

Was a really great exhibition to see to celebrate 100years of Nihonbashi.

From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art
From Goldfish Art

The Art Aquarium has sadly finished. It only ran for a few weeks. It was at the Mitsui Hall on Level 4 of the Coredo Building in Nihonbashi, opposite the Mitsukoshi department store. Opposite this building:

From Aquarium Art

The artist behind this exhibition is Hidetomo Kimura. He has several exhibitions which are ‘Aqua’ themed and based around goldfish. He specialises in Art Aquarium. There is also currently another exhibition on in Tokyo called “Sky Aquarium” – an aquarium that has been temporarily installed on level 52 of the Mori Hills Tower – it’s on until Sep 25. It has come to town every summer over the last four years. I’ll probably go check that one out at some point in the next couple of weeks. You can check out info about the artist and his exhibition info in English here.

Conrad Tokyo Afternoon Tea: French fizz and mini morsels

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If you want to attract ladies to an event, I have two words that will do the trick: “Unlimited champagne”. Well, make that three words: “Unlimited sparkling wine” – coz let’s face it, it did not come specifically from the Champagne region. The folks at the Conrad Hotel, Tokyo, know how to get bums on seats at their Twenty-Eight Bar and Lounge. If the 2 x Michelin star Gordan Ramsay restaurants at the Conrad Hotel (part of the Hilton chain) aren’t enough to attract people, then their Afternoon Tea set with 2 hours of unlimited french fizz/champers/”I can’t believe it’s not champagne”/sparkling wine, certainly will. I had no trouble recruiting fellow tea lovers for September’s Champagne Afternoon tea – 8 people in attendance!

So Sunday afternoon was spent at the Conrad Hotel at their Bar and Lounge – called “Twenty Eight”. And guess what level it’s on? If you guessed level 28, you’d be right! I had originally wanted to do this venue back in August on the weekend that I went to Bvlgari, but they were booked out, hence I arranged to go to Bvlgari instead. So I booked a month in advance for this one. The Afternoon Tea is called “American Classic” and the food was amazing! So darn cute. Everything was mini. And nothing is cooler than miniature food…except for giant oversized food. And to top it off, for a limited time there is a champagne offer which half of us took up on – 2 hours of unlimited Chandon to accompany the afternoon tea. Yes, please! I’m going to launch straight into the food. Another venue that does a modern take on afternoon tea – they’ve done away with the three-tiered platters here. Instead, mini food is presented on a flat glass platter. And the mini food was soooo cute. We oohed and aahed over it. You’d have thought it was a baby shower. No one ate for a good 15 minutes as we happily admired the food and snapped away. Each platter held two servings. I’ve heard of super size me…but this was super shrink me.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

How cute and awesome is mini food. There’s not enough mini food in this world, I say. Proof that good things come in small packages.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

Savouries, sweets and scones all on the one tray, so beautifully presented. Talk about so much fun with food.

From Conrad Tokyo

I’m rather obsessed with this mini food.

From Conrad Tokyo

Food for little people = fun.

From Conrad Tokyo

Can. Not. Get. Enough. Photos. Of. This.

From Conrad Tokyo

We were in for a fun afternoon. Mini morsels of delectable food, washed down with unlimited glasses of Champers!

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

The way to a woman’s heart (or at least mine) is champagne and cute mini food (or giant food). And the food not only looked good but was pretty darn delicious too! It was so hard to pick and choose what to eat first and save for last. My ritual is to eat the savouries first – of which there were three on this occasion. This was the walnut bread with Iberico ham scented with truffles. OMG. So tasty. Love nuts. Love bread. Does that make me carb crazy. And Iberico ham is a really famous, amazing, tasty ham. And it did not disappoint. Sooo good. This was definitely one of my favourites.

From Conrad Tokyo

I think the highlight of the day was the mini burger (slider for you American readers). Mini burgers are so the food of du jour. We were all rather besotted with this burger. It was a perfect miniature burger. God bless burgerlings.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

I couldn’t resist doing a cheesy burger pose! (Clearly, I have no shame.) What can I say, I’m lovin’ it. This is one very happy meal.

From Conrad Tokyo

And inside was juicy. Mini sliders have a tendency to be on the drier side but this surprisingly juicy and not dry. It also had a tasty harisa aioli for extra flavour. The burger was another winner.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

Yum. Yum. It was interesting to see what everyone was saving for last. Someone was clearly saving the mini burger for the end. The last burger standing:

From Conrad Tokyo

Next I had the brie cheese on cranberry bread sandwich. I thought that I would love this, but I didn’t.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

I then moved onto the sweets next. There were a lot of desserts in this afternoon tea, and normally it’s my least-favourite tier. But everything on this plate was awesome and I loved the desserts portion of this particular afternoon tea. Desserts were their forte here. And I appreciate that it took skills to make everything in miniature. There was a lime marshmallow which was very limey – nice and tart, yet sweet and marshmallowy too.

From Conrad Tokyo

This was followed by more miniature food – a tiny devil’s chocolate fudge cake.

From Conrad Tokyo

And then a miniature cupcake. This was really yummy. A pistachio and cherry cupcake. Cupcakes are pretty small to begin with but this about a quarter of a size of a full cupcake.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

It was sad to see the platters dwindle down as the mini morsels were slowly picked off and devoured.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

Getting smaller…

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

So next I tried the New York cheesecake. Personally, I’m not a huge cheesecake fan in general. The only cheesecake I really love is my mum’s cheesecake which she always makes for birthdays and special occasions. It’s a favourite at family and relo gatherings. Anyway, this was the cheesecake – still good nevertheless.

From Conrad Tokyo

Now normally I always…always save the scones for last. I never deviate from this ritual. But I did on this occasion. There were two scones – a plain one and a mango and coconut scone. It was a face-off between the lemon meringue pie or the scones. The lemon meringue pie won! Yes, lemon meringue pie was on offer. Awesome. Especially since just a couple of weekends ago I had been in pursuit of lemon meringue pie. And the only thing better than lemon meringue pie is MINI lemon meringue pie!

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

So I broke with tradition and ate the scones next. I just can’t get decent scones in Japan. They are dry, hard, American ‘biscuits’. I preferred the plain one over the mango and coconut one.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

And then down to the last lemon pie standing:

From Conrad Tokyo

I had saved it for last. And it was pretty divine, and so cute to look at!

From Conrad Tokyo

Check out the detail to the mini meringue peaks.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

It was yummy. It was actually way better than the other lemon pie that I had bought. There was such a tiny layer of the lemon curd, but it was so incredibly tarty and awesome. The only downside was the pastry on this pie. It was too flakey. It had been made with puff pastry rather than being a shortcrust pie pastry. Still bliss.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

And then the whole platter was empty. What a sad moment.

From Conrad Tokyo

You might recall that I’ve mentioned before in other tea reviews that it would be nice if they gave us fresh plates. Essentially we are eating savoury foods, scones, and desserts all off the same plate. Today was a prime example of needing fresh plates. Here’s what happens when you eat randomly (this is why I save the scones for last). Someone had obviously saved the mini hamburger for last but was left with a jam-smeared plate. Any afternoon tea venue that offers fresh plates will definitely earn brownie points with me, so as to AVOID the below travesty:

From Conrad Tokyo

I really enjoyed the afternoon tea arrangement here – glass platters of mini food. I noticed that for other guests there in groups of twos – had different glass platters – they were glass platters that were in a staircase arrangement. I was a little jealous of their servingware. Super cool. I zoomed in a random person’s afternoon tea set. You can kind of see in this photo, what I mean:

From Conrad Tokyo

Here are some photos of the Twenty Eight Bar and Lounge. Plenty of natural light streaming in from the tall glass windows.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

Seats by the window only seat two people, but there are great water views over Tokyo Bay.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

It was a lovely afternoon tea enjoyed with a great bunch of friends, including a couple of newbies to high tea. Eight has been my record number of attendees in Tokyo. Our little high tea societea obligatory group shot:

From Conrad Tokyo

I highly rate the food here. Service was only a ok. Views are nice too – over the water. The French fizz offer – always a welcome bonus. Oh, I nearly forgot to talk about the tea. Only three teas are on offer here – Assam, Darjeeling and Ceylon. Nothing special. But for those who declined the champagne option, they went through a couple of pots of tea. Everyone chooses a tea and then you need to stick to it. No tea sampling here. Also coffee on offer as well. Once you’ve selected your tea for the afternoon – it’s as much tea as you like (unlimited refills). I went with the ceylon tea. I’m a little ashamed to say that I did not even drink a whole cup of tea. Was too busy drinking the french fizz!!! The Afternoon Tea – American Classic – was really good here. I thoroughly enjoyed the food.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

The Afternoon Tea set on its own (food platter plus tea/coffee) is 3950yen (tax included). For the 2 hour free-flowing sparkling wine offer in conjunction with the Afternoon Tea set is 6000yen. Pretty good value, I say. For an extra 2000yen you can easily down 5-6 glasses of Chandon comfortably. More, if you’re really keen to get bang for your buck. (NB: That the sparkling wine offer is only valid at certain times of the year. Check with the hotel. It ends at the end of September…which is why we went when we did). The afternoon tea here is like the amuse bouche version of afternoon tea – and my bouche was amused. Touché mon amie.

From Conrad Tokyo

I liked that you can totally relax here and take your time. There is no ushering you out the door in a hurry. Afternoon tea is on offer from 2:30pm, so we booked for right on that time. I was running late, so we probably didn’t start until about 3pm. The unlimited sparkling wine is valid for two hours, and then after that you can stay and continue to have as much tea as you like. Most people left at about 6pm, but I stayed back with a couple of the other girls, and we probably didn’t leave until about 7-7.30pm. It got dark, so I was able to take some night shots of the Lounge in Bar mode.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

Night view:

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

I do love a champagne afternoon tea.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

The Conrad Hotel is a very nice hotel. Modern and contemporary design. I liked it.

From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo
From Conrad Tokyo

I won’t be doing another afternoon tea for a little while now, which is why I indulged up (not that I need an excuse). For a least another 4-6 weeks. No more teas in September because the next few weekends are taken up with a run race, an ows race and little long weekend trip. And then off overseas for two weeks. The Conrad Hotel, Tokyo is located at Shiodome/Shinbashi area near HamaRikyu Japanese Gardens. From the subway you’ll need to alight at Shiodome station. The hotel is connected to the Shiodome exit. Shiodome station is the most convenient access. If coming by JR, alight at Shinbashi station. I got lost coming from this station. And it took me over 15 minutes to get there, although it should have taken way less than that. It can be a little confusing…so allow a little extra time. Hotel website, afternoon tea menu, info etc can be found here.

August by numbers

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August. 31 days. 31 blog posts. … Sorry about that. I should have warned you. That’ll teach ya to sign up to my RSS feed!

From August 2011

My challenge/project for the month was to write a blog entry everyday for a whole month. Success! What a mammoth effort! And time consuming too. Don’t think I’ll be doing that again in a hurry. It was a good opportunity though to finally getting around to doing a backlog of posts.

August by numbers: 31 days. 31 blog posts.

23 days worked.

16km swum (training). 25km jogged/walked (training).

1 marathon application entered.

1 high tea.

0 ows races. (Sadly no ows races competed in this month. The only two races on this month were in Shiga and Hyogo prefectures. Way too far to get to. But I have signed up for another long swim race in September and even a short run race too).

A quick setsuden update. July’s electricity bill was 2360yen – without using the a/c at all. Totally switched to an electric fan and was using it liberally as well (it was on for about 12 hours a day). Compared to last year’s July bill where I used the a/c liberally, my bill was 3,853yen.

From August 2011

During August, it got ridiculously hot, so I took to turning on the a/c for a few hours a day, as well as liberally using the fan. So my electricity bill went up a little. This month’s bill was 2689yen with using the a/c sparingly. A huge difference from last year’s August bill where I was using the a/c on overtime. Last year’s August bill was 5,657yen! Safe to say, August is the hottest month of the year.

From August 2011

My setsuden project was successful too. By switching over to an electric fan instead of using the a/c – really does make a difference! Up to 50% reduction in electricity bill. That’s impressive. But I will admit, sometimes a fan ain’t enough on a 35 degree day! But we didn’t suffer any brownouts because, collectively, Japan was able to reduce electricity consumption over the summer. Every business over the summer had to cut electricity consumption by 15% from last year by government order. That regulation will end on Sep 22.

Glad that August is no over. Way too much blogging! Now I can have my life back! And back to my sporadic blogging whenever I feel like it. September is gonna be a very busy month! Have heaps of stuff planned. So there will still be plenty of my alventures to read about. I’ve got to live in order to blog it about it, I suppose.

NACT: Sunday Impressions

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I had a really awesome Sunday in Tokyo today. I ventured out to to my first proper art gallery experience in a really long time and have discovered my new favourite place in Tokyo. And that would be the National Art Centre, Tokyo (NACT) in Midtown (Roppongi). My manager at work had told me about it as a really good place to go to eat (he is also a huge foodie. We often exchange dining recommendations). In addition to there being a huge art gallery space, there is also a nice French restaurant. I went there with a friend today who is a huge fan of the place and goes there every year. The building itself was impressive. I loved the architecture and building design. I took my SLR camera and took a ridiculous number of photographs. Here are lots of photos that I took from the outside of the building. It’s made all of glass and is curved and wavy.

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

Super cool, right. So in love with this building. And I hadn’t even walked in yet. Right in the entrance, I looked up and took this shot.

From NACT

So the whole point of my trip to the National Art Centre was to check out an exhibition that was on: The Washington National Gallery (Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC). Exhibition Entry: 1500yen.

From NACT

There were A LOT of people inside the gallery. I walked through the four exhibition areas and checked out the art…just looking. I don’t know much anything about art. Just that I know what I like when I see it. I’m more a modern contemporary art fan (my favourite art museum would be the Pompidou in Paris). It was an impressive collection of works from the likes of Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh and a handful of other artists. I was really taken with the two pieces by Georges Seurat, in particular “Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy”. His brush technique is super cool. His brushstrokes are super fine, almost like a dot mosaic. It was pretty mesmerizing. Once I had seen the exhibition, I then just walked around the gallery and took photos of the building interior. It was so fascinating. I probably spent more time taking photos than time actually spent looking at the exhibition. The building is just so darn cool and modern. It’s glass and open spaces, and there is a huge inverted cone, atop of which is the third floor restaurant. I highly recommend visiting the National Art Centre, even if you’re not going to see an exhibition. All the open spaces, the gift shops, and eateries are free. Only an entry fee is required to see an actual running exhibition. Here are a score or two of photos I took just wandering around inside the Centre experimenting with light and angles on my camera. As you can see, lots of people were also spending their Sunday here.

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

Up on the higher levels, I got some more cool photos.

From NACT
From NACT

Arial view

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

The restaurants here are also super cool, atop of the two inverted cones. There’s a tea cafe on the second floor. I love how they are built up high in a round shape.

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

How cool is this:

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

We had lunch on the third floor French Brasserie: Paul Bocuse le musee. Paul Bocuse is a famous chef considered the Godfather of french cuisine. He has a bunch of restaurants around Japan. The one at the NACT is pretty cool and I was so excited to eat there. The restaurant is atop of the main inverted cone, and again, is built in a round shape.

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

Clearly, I couldn’t get enough photos of this place! Truly fascinating.

From NACT
From NACT

I’ll have more photos (including the food ones in a separate forthcoming blog entry). After a long leisurely late lunch, we ventured down onto the basement level where there is the really cool souvenir gift store which sells all things arty, creative and cool. Great spot for interesting, unique gifts. It was almost a museum in itself. So many creative and funny products and a great variety of stuff. The store was a lot of fun. In addition to the tea salon cafe, and the french brasserie, there’s a cafeteria on the basement level, and a casual refreshments cafe on the ground floor. There’s also an art library as well. We also got a bit of peak into the calligraphy exhibition as well. There are three gallery levels with changing exhibits. The National Art Centre is also one of the trio of museums in the Roppongi Art Triangle – the Mori Art musuem, the Suntory Art Musuem and the NACT. Ticket stubs to one will also get you a small discount into the others. By the time I left the Art Centre after having spent about 6 hours there (looking, dining, browsing, taking photos) which was about 6pm, it was dusk and I took some more final photos of the building exterior. Too cool for words.

From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT
From NACT

NACT website. Public spaces are free. Ticket prices will vary depending on exhibition.

 

The Ritz on the House: World of Tea in Tokyo

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It brings me great joy and pleasure to write today’s blog post. Today’s write-up is a labour of love. So, you know how I have this rather humble blog of mine, and you know how much I love high teas (well, tea and food in general) … well, I have had the rather extreme good fortune of partaking in the World of Tea experience at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Tokyo as an invited guest! You might recall that back in May to usher in my (30th! Gasp!) birthday, I had a rather tiny soiree (with some fellow gastronomes) at one of the creme de la creme extravagant high tea experiences at the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo – the highest place to do High Tea in Tokyo (on level 45).

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe it may also be the highest place to do Afternoon Tea in the World! So after writing that particular blog post and review of the High Tea at the Ritz, the Executive Assistant Manager of Food and Beverage who oversees the dining establishments at the Ritz in Tokyo read my blog, and got in touch with me. I had no idea why he wanted to get in contact with me. So naturally, my imagination went wild. Perhaps a job offer as a food photographer (one can dream), or perhaps he wanted to give me a tea warmer (which I had raved about). As it turned out, much to my delight, he was extending an invitation to me (along with Tami and Kaori) to attend as special guests to the World of Tea experience! Wow. Talk about incredibly amazing.

A free afternoon tea at the Ritz! Now there’s seven words that I like very much. He also wrote me some kind words about that blog post: I quote: “Dear Aleisha, Greetings from The Ritz-Carlton! I have read your blog regarding the High Afternoon Tea experience at our Lobby Lounge. Thank you very much for your honest description of the time spent with us. I enjoyed your subtle sense of humour as well as your attention to details while creating the blog.” —- I was extremely flattered. He had me at: “I have read your blog”. (I don’t think many people I meet could say that to me! My blog has a very small readership.) I won’t get too carried away on this point…must bring myself down a notch. They probably have Google Alerts set-up everytime the word “Tokyo Ritz” appears on the internet. He then went on to say in the email: “Your tea time story brought so much joy to our Lobby Lounge Team! Therefore I would be more than honored if you accept my invitation for our World of Tea. Please feel free to ask your two friends Tami and Kaori to come as well. This is our Lobby Lounge monthly special event in which we partner with different tea company every time in order to create unique and memorable moments for our guests.”

Wow. How exciting. And how unbelievable! This stuff only happens in the movies! This was better than winning the lottery! And then my alarm went off…and this was all just a dream. No, just kidding!!! Seriously all of this happened!!!!

The World of Tea experience happens at the Ritz hotel for three days exclusively every month. Each month they feature different tea suppliers/brands and offer a customized afternoon tea menu (usually based on a theme) with an assortment of tea pairings from that particular tea supplier. In the past they have had Taylors of Harrogate, and Leafull, to name just a couple. Even though I was invited back in May, I decided to take up the offer this month. August’s World Of Tea Experience was presented by Lupicia (a well known tea brand) with the theme being ‘Ryou’ meaning ‘Cool’ – ideal for summer with a focus on iced-tea blends. With a couple of month’s notice, my friends and I had arranged time off from work to partake in this World of Tea experience at the Ritz as special guests. The Ritz on the House!

From World of Tea: The Ritz

Upon arrival, I simply said my name and was ushered immediately to our seats (by the window, I might add). Window seating – always a plus! Me: “Hi. My name is Aleisha.” Them: “Right this way”. (So this is how the other half live! I could get used to this.) We got lovely window seating with great views over Tokyo (it helps to be on the 45th floor).

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

We sat and perused the World of Tea special menu (which I took home as a keepsake. Might have to frame it or laminate or something).

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

The table was exquisitely set up.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

There was a tea course which involved samples of six different teas (all from Lupicia)! What I loved about it, was that each tea was served in a different tea cup/beverage vessel! The Welcome Tea was an Oolong tea served in a champagne glass. (This was a chilled tea). I was half-expecting this to taste sweet.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Mustn’t forget the bird’s eye view of the tea. Look at the clarity of the tea.

From World of Tea: The Ritz

The First Tea was Sencha (a deep-steamed green tea) served in a chawan which I forgot to take a photo of! My only saving grace is that you can see the cup that it was served in, in this photo. It’s the little Japanese cup to the right of the photo (with the little lid on it).

From World of Tea: The Ritz

The Second Tea was a Bocha (a roasted tea) served in a really cool cup and saucer. The saucer was hollowed out to fit the cup perfectly (ぴったり). No mixing and matching cups and saucers with this one! We checked the bottom of the cup and saw that it was made by Lupicia, so me thinks, you can probably purchase them from a Lupicia store.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

The ‘Tea for Break” – the ‘intermission tea’ was Gyokuro – another iced-tea. They alternated between hot teas and iced-teas. It was served in a little egg-cup-like shot glass.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

The Third Tea was a Japanese black tea (hot).

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

And the Encore Tea (I love how they called it an ‘Encore’ tea!) was a matcha tea (a traditional rich Japanese green tea) which was chilled and served on the rocks (i.e. with ice).

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

An interesting selection of Japanese teas both chilled (perfect for summer) as well as hot teas. All the teas presented on this occasion are all from with Japan. The tea menu came with a description blurb of each tea which was very thoughtful. The teas are served as progression throughout the meal, and not served all at once.

From World of Tea: The Ritz

If any of these teas take your fancy then check out Lupicia in Australia, Japan, the US. Don’t you just love how that an anagram for ‘tea’ is ‘eat’ (and ‘ate’) which brings me nicely to the part where we talk about the food (transition…subtle). There was an entree of cutlass fish which I think was part of the savoury tier.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

The flavour was a little too subtle for my liking. It could have done with a bit more flavour. Time for the piece de resistance. The magnum opus. The three tiers of epicuriosity.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Here was the savoury tier which included some delicious sushi! This platter was so visually appealing. Fresh and vibrant colours. Even the photos look edible!

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

First, you must eat with your eyes, as beautifully captured on my SLR Nikon D5000 (you’re welcome). Hence, an overload of photos. The sweets tier:

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

And then the scones, with the beautifully quinelled (curled scoop) of cream:

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

And lest we forget the jam and preserve condiments.

From World of Tea: The Ritz

Once the tiered platter is brought out, no one is allowed to eat until I’ve taken no less than 200 photos of it, which takes a good 10-15 minutes. Then we’re allowed to eat. (I apologize to anyone who eats with me.) My ritual then is to bring each food portion down onto my serving plate, followed by another photo session, but at least this time I’m not preventing other people from eating. I always start with the savoury plate. Such clean presentation. Such awesome food photography skills (I am typing this one-handed whilst I toot my own horn with the other) 🙂

From World of Tea: The Ritz

How skillful was this corn shinjo. The outer layer of the corn kernels have been delicately placed around the seafood cake to make it look like a slice of corn cob! Food art.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

The food menu was very Japanese-influenced. Sushi, sweet potatoes, rice noodles (which just quietly, something was amiss with).

From World of Tea: The Ritz

I love the clarity of the rice granules in this next shot:

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Following the savoury treats is the sweet delights. Remember: Savour then Devour.

From World of Tea: The Ritz

I arrange each onto my plate, like so:

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Same plate, different angles!

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

This was the rose flavoured white peach tartlet which was delicious.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

There was also a yuzu chocolate macaroon. Love chocolate. Love yuzu. I couldn’t get enough photos of this! I am rather obsessed with looking at macaroons. I could look at them all day and take photos of them all day. I like looking at them more than I like eating them. I’m actually not a huge fan of them…still eat them nevertheless. (Just thought of an awesome idea. I am going to change my computer screen wallpaper at work to a macaroon display). Look here and here (two Google image searches, different spelling – ‘macaroons’ and ‘macrons’.) I took about thirty photos of this macaroon. I will spare you all thirty. Here are just a handful.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

The art of restraint is one I have not yet mastered when it comes to food. I always save the scones for last.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Keeping in mind that the theme of this tea was ‘Cool’ – it was only fitting that the menu was fresh, vibrant, light, colourful, refreshing and very さっぱりした。 I found that the assortment of Japanese teas was very cleansing. And to prove that I am not being paid or ‘influenced’ by the Ritz to write a glowing review – I will say the following that could have been enhanced: – more staff, faster service (this was mentioned in my first review of the Ritz). – fresh plates to be brought out for each tier. Now, I don’t know of any hotel or tea venue that does this. But I think this would be a really nice touch and I would commend any hotel that does this. At every afternoon/high tea that I’ve done, you have only one small serving plate that you use as you work your way through the three tiers. It would be preferable to have fresh plates so that after I’ve eaten my savoury morsels, I am then not eating off the same plate that has cakes on it next. Not necessary. But nice. I think such a gesture would make a five-star place stand out from the rest of the pack. Relaxing, eating, drinking – no better way to spend a Friday afternoon, courtesy of the Ritz.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Three very lucky gals enjoying a World of Tea right here in Tokyo!

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Live pianist as well to provide some ambient sounds.

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Halfway during our afternoon tea, the manager who had extended the invitation to us, came over to introduce himself. It was lovely to meet him in person. Each month they try to do outdo themselves coming up with better and more creative World of Tea experiences from all across the globe. And various tea suppliers/tea brands are coming on board to showcase their tea line. I’m sure there is something to suit every taste. You should keep an eye on their events calendar to find out which ones pique your interest. Afternoon Tea at the Ritz is very popular and they have carved themselves a nice little niche in this market. They offer a regular afternoon tea which can be enjoyed on weekends. They also have the more extravagant Ritz high tea (which I indulged in for my birthday). There’s also the monthly World of Tea experience which changes every month. They also have a children’s Teddy Bear afternoon tea just for the kiddies! What’s more, is that you can also do a Ladies Afternoon Tea luncheon (more a lunch than an afternoon tea.) Check their calendar for specials. Current offer is: 4th lady is free in a group of 4, that is, four for the price of three.) I am fan of the artworks which adorn the Lobby Lounge inside the Ritz hotel. I have since discovered that the artist is Sam Francis. (You’re welcome). The World of Tea experience is generally held once a month over three consecutive days on the last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the month (best to check via their website for dates etc). Each month has a different theme, presented by a different tea supplier with a totally different menu. Teas from all around the world are presented. So you won’t expect the same thing twice. You can, however, guarantee that it will be creative and unique. Given that they’re on a weekday, it’s not something that I would normally be able to experience. Having worked overtime during this week doing additional computer training at work, I was able to take a few hours off work to attend this tea (in lieu of overtime pay). Judging by the crowd in the Lobby Lounge, it seems that this is quite popular amongst ladies of leisure. So this is how the other half live. I even saw one lady partaking in afternoon tea on her own. Kudos to her (*virtual high five* – *tap chest twice peace sign*). One of my other friends told me that she did afternoon tea alone when she was in the UK where at the Jane Austin teahouse you can order the Mr Darcy afternoon tea set. (Me squealing with joy on the inside). ‘Awe’ and then ‘some’. That just went straight onto my bucketlist!

From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz
From World of Tea: The Ritz

Housewives with wealthy husbands that can afford to do tea on a weekday (as you do), whilst the rest of us peasants have to work for a living. Where do I find me one of these rich husbands so I can do tea at the Ritz on a weekday every month?! World of Tea experience costs 6000yen per person. I am extremely grateful to have been able to partake in this courtesy of The Ritz. Thank you to Mr Cernia and his team at the Lobby Lounge at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Tokyo for the generosity shown to myself and two friends. We truly appreciate it. It was a wonderful, unforgettable experience! As a collector of memories and experiences…this one rates up there! Disclaimer: This review (as with all my reviews) are simply in my humble opinion, and are written purely as a hobby. I am not a professional food critic or writer (although am happy to do so if you have an offer!). I don’t recommend that you just start a blog just to get yourself a free meal. I write and blog about food and High Teas in particular purely as a hobby without any intention of profiting from it. For me, I am passionate about tea, about food, about food photography and Japan (hence this High Tea Project). Keep in mind that I have done over 16 high teas in Tokyo alone (over a period of 18 months), and over 20 high teas combined around the world, and this was the first time I have ever been given such a “gift”. My High Tea Project takes a toll on the wallet and the waistline. Yes, it’s a health hazard. It is just a hobby. But a hobby that I love. I have also reviewed well over 200 dining establishments throughout Japan on this blog and this is the first time I have ever “gained” something from it. Also be mindful of the fact that I also first went to the Ritz for afternoon tea on my own dime. You can read about that here. So this particular occasion was a fortuitous blessing and certainly not an expectation (although happy to take any offers if other 5-star hotels would like to follow suit!). Warning: Shameless spruiking/plugging. As an amateur food photographer, I would love to take photos of your food. Food is the only currency required. That’s right, no cash, just food, for my services. If you would like to enjoy High Tea at the Ritz check out their website. The hotel is located in Midtown (Roppongi). Complete photo album slideshow (this was the culled version and it has 132 photos. The full album contained 168 photos and that was after I trashed all the dud shots. This blog post has taken me over 3 hours to put together with text, images and links. It’s 4.30pm on Saturday arvo and I’m still in my PJs!) More photos of the Ritz can be found in my other post. Please feel free to leave a comment!