Tokyo Story - stepping out from a kitchen

The world can be large and small, depending on how one looks at it. As for Tokyo, it’s definitely true there’s a whole world out there and not only sushi. I just came to visit Yoshi-kun - kun often used for young boys - even if he’s a big man weighing about 100 kilos. He draws manga, for a living. I call him “mama” because of the way he always takes care of me, while I’m in Japan. Married to Yoshi-kun, there is Yooko. Despite her appearance, in fact she can be tuff; she even worked as a sushi cook, which in Japan is a career mostly reserved to man. That’s how I begun to call her “papa”. I just love to be in the house, with Yoko and Yoshi, because it’s a total mess everywhere, therefore we can relax, there’s no need to be careful about anything. In the kitchen, the sink is always full of unwashed, pots and pans enhancing a rich mixture of soy sauce, sticky rice and sesame oil. Only people striving for artificial things, would consider it a bad smell. Over, that sink, a little window with a real view of Mount Fuji! not a feeling that goes away, it stays right there in the middle of your heart, much greater than any postcards. This little kitchen filled with traces of food therefore humanity is a poetic view of reality, just as it is, quite a new and yet reinsuring state of mind.

This experience particularly strikes me in some streets of Tokyo. In the downtown districts in particular, in the long and narrow street of Ameoko(Ueno); the fish merchants wearing white and blue scarves around their heads, always scream “irrashai! ”, “yassui-yo! ” (“come here”, “it’s cheap”). Addressing their words to everybody with a homey voice and that’s what makes everybody feel home. Asakusa, although still the heart of the down town area is definitely too touristy to me. The thing to do anyway is to give a little wink to the big demons standing on the side of the Shinto Shrine entering gate. That’s when you say to yourself, now that we are friends, I can just go everywhere. Not that You have ever felt any slightly different before, but still, it is fun to do it. Then I leave those demons, behind, put myself back together, pleasurably in touch with reality.

Trying the local food is always a delightful way to travel. A great experience for those who are in a down town mood, is to go to a ramenya, small restaurants often with greasy windows and a single bare light bulb serving ramen (Chinese broth with noodle ), with me, it always hit the top. How does any human being resist to enter a little Japanese restaurant with beautiful, perfect wax reproductions of dishes on the windows? Plus absolutely everything I could get from convenience stores - small sparkling supermarkets open 24 hours a day with the brightest neon signs on it. Oscar WildeOscar Wilde, once wrote “ I can resist to anything but temptations”. I guess, I’ll just have to follow him.

As for shopping, don’t miss the select shops like Stitch. What happens in a Japanese select shop is that they fit the tribes, so are related to a particular taste and lifestyle, according to which, they provide you with about everything you need, from clothing, to food, furniture, hair dresser, office supplies, accessories, underwear, it’s endless. The problem is that you might end up wishing to buy it all.

If you do your shopping in the trendiest district of Harajuku, where if you’re not 17 years old you should fake it, you might buy at least one little special item in Laforet, the funkiest department store around. You will go nuts for all the young designers and get yourself some wild accessories, such as a piece of fake rabbit fear which you are planning to use as a little carpet, next to your bath tub or wear it on your chest. In case you need a little help for the total look, may I suggest a green and blue kilt over the black denim jeans, a big Louis VuittonLouis Vuitton bag, and a pair of Ghetta (Japanese, hard wood traditional shoes, hard to walk with) Now I would say you are ready to go, you belong to the Harajuku’s crowd and you can have fun!