We breakfast with Annette and Neal and then taxi to our Air Bn'b in Minamiazabu in Minato City (which is part of Tokyo City), where we will stay for ten days. There are six of us. The family who live there moves out for the guests. The address is 1-chōme-19-3 Minamiazabu, Minato City, Tōkyō-to 106-0047.
Chris booked this for us all and wanted something different than a hotel. Chris arrives tonight and Renee in two days time.
A view of the dining and living room and kitchen.
And our bedroom.
The roof top garden, where Chris hung out his clothes and I was nosey.
After we arrived, Richard, the owner turned up and offered us a tour of the local area. Richard is Scottish and married a Japanese lady and they have three children. Annette commented on Richard's smart suit and hat. Richard replied "It is my circus outfit, I work in the circus." It was a joke and Annette quite earnestly replied back "What part of the circus do you work in?" I couldn't stop laughing. It is the kind of question I would ask, and he really did have such a manner about him that he could have been in the circus! (He had actually been an accountant with PwC, but then moved into hospitality ownership.) From left to right (you can probably guess by now) Richard, Annette, Bill and Neal.
Richard told us there are 126 million people in Japan, and 5 years ago 30,000 suicides a year, albeit declining.
He told us that houses get demolished after the owner's lifetime - so every 30 years or so. So then a new house is designed and built by the new owner. People build houses on the smallest pieces of land. Space is of the essence - the Japanese use space really well.
He told us there are no rubbish or recycling bins as in the 1980's (?) terrorists used bins for bombs, so they banned them and everyone is in charge of their own rubbish. There is no litter anywhere.
So far I get people are so honest and polite whenever we see them. I question Richard on the suicide rate and the polite culture and whether there is a relationship. He summed it up well by saying there is little space for real self expression. They are required to behave in a certain way and so bottle it up and then some kill themselves!
Annette buying pastries. (This is unrelated to the previous paragraph, Ed.)
A double bike stand.
A Ferrari shop nearby (for Barrie.)
We meet Nick and Janie for lunch. We start at the hotel, and go out looking for places for a long lunch. Unfortunately we could not find anywhere we all liked and we end up back at the hotel! It was a funny walk though, trying to find a place. Nick uses funny terms of phrases, which are not put downs and mostly about how tall and simple minded he is with food, like why can't somebody design a door for me to go through to get noodles and meatballs. Most restaurants, as Richard had told us on the morning tour of Minato, are specialised as are retail shops. Shops are specialised on product, e.g. you would not get a shop of crockery, it would be a shop of teapots and small cups, and exclude dinner plates. Or a shop of just handbags, not a shop of accessories. Food is the same. So you would have a restaurant that is Japanese and Ramen, or Japanese and sushi, but not one with ramen and sushi.
Here is Bill, Nick, Janie and me. Nick and Janie are South African, and Nick as an ex Springbok coach. He is on a weekly South African TV rugby show giving his views of Super rugby and international games. He loves the NZ style of rugby. He is also on the panel that chooses the rugby referees for the World Cup.
We taxi back to Minamiazabu to catch up with Chris and go out for a bite to eat. We learnt some restaurants save seats just for regulars. (Sometimes a restaurant only seats 6 or 8.) However we find one. It is all Japanese and the table next to us are vaping. It was cheap and cheerful. I did not take a photo of the restaurant. Here is the district where we are in (1-chōme-19-3 in red, I think.)
