MAY 2018 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 67
JAPANNG MAPS; MAPDATA © OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS, AVAILABLE UNDER OPEN DATABASE LICENSE: OPENSTREETMAP.ORG/COPYRIGHT6.13 p.m.
Language Lessons
English isn’t widely spoken in Tokyo, and I don’t speak Japanese,
so I’ve made do with sign language—which connects you to
people in a deeper, often hilarious way. I’m dripping in sweat
while riding the train back to the hotel when I notice a woman,
probably in her mid-50s, wiping her brow with a handkerchief
before handing the rag to her daughter. The mother and I make
eye contact, and I mime dabbing my forehead, as if to say,
“Me next?” She laughs.
8.29 p.m.
The Secret Sauce
For a decade, Chef Harutaka Takahashi
apprenticed under famed sushi chef Jiro
Ono (of the acclaimed documentary film
Jiro Dreams of Sushi) before opening his
own Michelin-starred spot, Harutaka,
in Ginza. Like so many of the best things in Tokyo, you have
to know where to look. Harutaka hides on the sixth floor of
a nondescript office building. The elevator doors open on a
brightly lit sushi bar with 10 seats. Guests are instructed not to
wear perfume. Plates start arriving almost immediately after
diners are seated: conger eel, otoro (superfatty tuna), tobiko
(roe). We watch the chef’s number two slice a delicate fish with
a sword. I ask Chef Takahashi what the secret is to his sushi.
He hunts for the fish himself, he explains, emphasising the
need for the highest quality from Tsukiji Market. But the real
secret, he says, is the “vinegar in the rice.”
11.32 p.m.
Heart of Vinyl
Running out of steam but not wanting to go to bed, I hop
a cab to hip Ebisu. As the streetlights pass by, I think of
Haruki Murakami’s novel After Dark and this great line
about Tokyo at night: “Time moves in its own special
way in the middle of the night. You can’t fight it.” I visit
a different kind of shrine, Bar Martha, one of a string of
vinyl-music bars popping up in Tokyo. The joint is easy to
miss; a blank cinder block wall and a sign marked BAR
are the only indications something is happening here. But
step inside, and you’ll find thousands of LPs beautifully
shelved and a chill DJ spinning records on a serious stereo
system. No photos, no requests. And no worries. Just top-
shelf Japanese whiskey and Joni Mitchell reminding me
that, yes, “California, I’m coming home.” We can escape
from the everyday for only so long.Kikanbo is
famous for its
spicy ramen,
which includes
ingredients
like Trinidadian
scorpion peppers
and Sichuan
peppercorns.