A Last Weekend of Firsts

As luck would have it, my two last weekends in Tokyo include national holidays and are 3-day weekends. This means more time to spend out and about with S enjoying the little time we have before my imminent departure to the dark, cold and rainy side. For once, we successfully limited the all-night parties and subsequent hangovers and saw sunlight from outside the apartment windows.

Saturday, we set off for Mt. Takao on a nice sunset hike. Autumn in Japan has "officially" begun (meaning the date deemed "end of summer" and "beginning of autumn" has passed), and though we are sure to be sweating out another few weeks of humid Japanese summer, the weather was surprisingly fresh and cool. We dodged some spider webs and fallen trees along the way and made it to the top just in time to see a lovely sunset peek through the trees.

After, S treated me to an amazing Japanese dinner in one of the nicest settings I've seen in Japan. Ukai Toriyama was the restaurant, set in a huge, breathtaking Japanese garden complete with turning water wheels and the scent of yakitori wafting from a small pagoda opposite a traditional goldfish pond. Anyway, the photos can explain better than I can.

Sunday was even more fun I must say, especially since our inability to wake up and start the day for once didn't seem to shorten the time we had to accomplish everything we wanted. We started with a picnic and Japanese macha tea at Hamarikyu garden and then continued on to Odaiba, which I had perhaps unfairly prejudged the archetype of Japanese tackiness-- another sad product of bubble redevelopment. To my surprise, however, I can see how Odaiba has become the prime dating destination for young people. You can sit along the (man-made) beach and watch the boats sail the harbor at sunset, and if you sit long enough, you eventually see the harbor amidst the lights of the distant skyscrapers and scarlet lanterns on the water. At that point, it is easier to forget the reconstructed Statue of Liberty looming behind you. We finished the night atop one of the highest ferris wheels in the world (If you can't beat the corny Japanese couples, you might as well join them!), which was especially fun for S since it was his first time on a "fairy wheel," as he calls it (apparently "ferris" is difficult for a Frenchy to remember).

A perfect day, really, ended with pizza, ice cream, a tummy ache, and a highly recommended DVD -- think the artistic directing and lovely innocence of "Amelie" combined with a war movie-- in my opinion, it can't get better than that!

Every weekend should be so lovely...