44 worldtravellermagazine.com
n the shadows the white-
cloaked master works
slowly, rhythmically –
painstakingly executing
his ritual with reverence.
His tools are basic, but no
matter. He has done it all
before, a thousand times
over, cloistered in this tiny,
dimly lit room — cream-
walled, fringed in polished wood, bare,
but not unfriendly. Seated in a semicircle
around his workspace is a hushed
audience of eight — myself included.
Entranced, we feel like intruders on
his sacred task. No-one dares disturb
Gen Yamamoto as he toils. After 10
minutes of tap-tap-tapping and swish-
swish-swishing in the darkness, he’s
ready. He reaches across the gleaming
wooden bar and presents me with the
precious fruit of his labour: a juicy pear
cocktail. It’s a taste of nature’s simplicity
in this manic, modern megacity.
In Tokyo, many things are not what
they seem. Contradictions are rife: the
sky-scraping, technicolour tangle of the
transport-hub Shinjuku is futuristic —
with robot-themed eateries and lavish
department stores — yet locals prefer
to flock to old-school, cash-only ramen
joints in ramshackle alleyways. Service
in shops is endlessly polite, yet there’s
nothing courteous about the metro:
no sharp elbow on the planet is more
eviscerating than the one served up on
the Yamanote Line come rush hour.
Most contradictory of all is that,
for all the city’s chaotic, unrelenting
backdrop of swallow-you-whole neon
glitz, thronging masses and brash
consumerism, you can find serenity. And
in the most unexpected of places. It is the
clash of rampant and placid that makes
Tokyo, well, Tokyo. Home to more than
13 million people, to the uninitiated the
city is an uncharted ocean, a mercurial
monolith. But dig deeper, and you’ll
find an ancient, sedate side waiting to
be discovered. Escaping the crowds is
easy, if you know where to look — and
necessary, I realised on this return
visit, in order to preserve your sanity.
I lived in Tokyo during my party-loving
early 20s and I couldn’t get enough of its
flashy scene. Returning 10 years later,
it’s a different story: I found myself
overwhelmed by its brash vastness.
These pages, clockwise
from above: Women wearing
kimonos walk through lit paper
lanterns at Yasukuni Shrine;
Mount Fuji backdrops the
Tokyo skyline; a traditional
tiny restaurant in 'memory
lane'; street art in electronics
shopping district Akihabara