Meez and Cherry 🌸

Meez and Cherry in Tokyo.

On my second full day in Tokyo I found it was time for another typical Japanese thing. The gardens! Japanese do love nature, they adore flowers and plants and they do spend a lot of time in the gardens in their free-time I was told. Tokyo has a lot of wonderful areas with huge parks or gardens. First I changed to my next hotel – 2 nights in the capsule hotel were fine but now I was looking forward to a bit more privacy lets say. So I walked (heavily packed again) to my new home: The Celestine Ginza Tokyo – a very nice hotel, also in Ginza with a great location right next to Shimbashi Station. So I got rid of my luggage and first started my stay with a wonderful breakfast here. Namely Miso, Miso, Miso. The waiter was lovely and would perfectly match in our „Für den Schrank Selection at home“ (not even 20, no worries at all) and enjoyed my Miso loving behaviour and told me that his father is working for Volkswagen – very good cars, he said (yepp!). It reminded my on my Master thesis that I wrote about Lean Management and Kaizen – founded of course in Japan. And actually no doubt about this at all, Kaizen is everywhere: Everything is so well structured and organized. There will be more examples for it later. I already mentioned the Metro rules. And really this is making it faster and more efficient. So after having a very good Japanese breakfast (more on this later it is getting even more lovely) I was ready for the Tokyo Metro again and went to Shinjuku district where I wanted to visit the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. The garden was originally one part of the Edo residence, so is very old and contains three styles, English Landscape Garden, French Formal Garden and Japanese Traditional Garden (I was interested in the most). I reached the area in only 20minutes, so easy to go from Ginza. In the hotel they told me that there won’t be any blossom at the moment but it is right about to start. So when entering and paying around (only) 1,50 Euro first I only saw winter moody trees and plants. But after walking only 5minutes – here they were!!!!! Cherry blossoms! Crowded with Japanese people this could not be unreal. And well all visitors and I were really lucky ones because it obviously had just started only a few days ago. I need to explain that Japanese Hanami or Sakura (Japanese Cherry Blossom) is the most important thing for Japanese people in spring. The really adore the Sakura. Sakura stuff is everywhere, ice cream, sweets, every packaging is with Sakura design. So I would almost say it is a seasonal thing after Christmas. Japanese spend hours with looking at the trees and their blossom which I find actually very beautiful as the blossoms are so impressive and these little things count, don’t you think so too? So they come – with their huge cameras – and take thousands of pictures of the cherry blossoms. End of March – high Sakura season – all the trees and alleys are in pink – this must be really beautiful – unfortunately I am a bit too early for the full blossom. So when coming to Japan end of March/ beginning of April you can enjoy a picnic under the cherry trees which is very common here. People told me that the whole cities are fully booked then and prices are even higher. So the more I enjoyed my early bird cherry blossoms together with some locals. And you know what I did? The same like they were showing me. I sat down, relaxed and stared at the trees inhaling the beauty of this for two hours. Two hours! What a luxury I had. As this is for family and friends only and you all know that I am a very emotional person, I have to admit that I cried some silent tears of happiness in front of these trees. Kind of embarrassing. But it just came over me. Sitting there alone in Japan. Grateful for the past, grateful for having this moment of no rush, just sitting there and inhaling the world. The cherry blossom in Japan has been put on my bucket list that I wrote almost 10 years ago for a serious reason. And here it was… My personal cherry blossom moment. So I spent my half day in the garden and I really recommend this to you whenever you come to Japan, plan at least half a day in a garden. It is a great contrast to the busy cities and allows you to relax and enjoy in a different way. Happily I left Shinjuku to see the total contrast, namely another district called Shibuya. So I took the Metro again and headed there. Shibuya is the most trendy and fashionable district in Tokyo where all the youngsters are going to. You find total crazy shops with Manga and comic stuff and a very famous department store called Shibuya 109 at the famous crossing named the same with all this totally crazy Japanese Girls stuff. Very, very special for our European taste and seriously not wearable in our size (you would look somehow very porn) but you have to see it to understand the Japanese way of dressing of the hippsters. So I strolled around and one hour later I found myself again in a cafe selling ice-cream with strawberry creations – probably I stared too long at pink blossoms, so I needed something sweet and pink. I had the most expansive ice-cream in my life (paying 25 Euro for it) but I did not check the price before. Anyway it was delicious and after a little heart attack when getting the bill I continued my way through crazy Shibuya. Gerhard, I know that you are reading. You would love it!!!! Crazy cool shit. I bought a Japanese hair band with a HUGE bow in Mauve color (of coz) and I love it. Looks a little bit like ARE YOU RUSSIAN? but actually also matches with the Geisha style 😂. Also found a shop called MEOW and thought of bringing this MEOW as franchise to Europe. Discarded the thought and headed back home to my new hotel in Ginza. Unfortunately I stumbled over another stationary and paper store and spent… hmmm… I would say at least 40minutes again (store maybe 15m2) with looking and touching on every single paper and card. Hey, I really think I do have a paper fetish. Well, bought nice tiny cards of Japanese Traditional paper and was totally happy with my day. Back in the hotel I was recommended another Sushi temple to go for dinner and so I went to Ginza Six – a new midtown Ginza Plaza that opened up 6 month ago with plenty of fine-dining places. I had again a perfect Sushi course at the bar, eye-to-eye with the Chef, so I had to try special things like shark liver because he was so friendly but also dominant somehow and promoted it well. It tasted great if I did not knew what it was… Brave girl with big Russian bow hair band 😂. Asked for Tuna then. Finally ended with a Miso soup – and had another perfect day in Tokyo. Blessed!