I like clean restrooms.
One of my biggest pet-peeves when traveling is places that lack proper and clean restroom facilities. It’s the reason why I’ve only stuck to thoroughly modern, first-world cities thus far in my travels; when nature inevitably calls, I don’t want to be scrambling to find a place to go, or worse, find a place, but it’s a mere hole in the ground, or it’s horrifically dirty.
It’s also why I’m don’t frequent music festivals, where there are only portable toilets, clustered together out in the middle of a desert. Hashtag the smell.
I don’t know how the female sect deals with that sort of thing. At least as a guy, I can do my (number one) business quickly without the need to sit down.
Major Asian cities I’ve been to does well to provide adequate public restrooms: there’s facilities at subway stations, at public spaces, and large malls. Any three of these are easily within walking distance from anywhere, should the need to go arises. The cities have done such a good job that small restaurants in Asia don’t even bother fitting restrooms on its premises. It’s one of the many reasons that keeps me returning to the continent.
Conversely, “public” restrooms in the States are for the most part privatized. In our city of San Francisco, I can recall zero public facilities in our downtown area; should you need a restroom, your options are either head into the nearest Starbucks coffee, or walk a bit further towards one of the few malls/shopping plazas (like the Ferry Building.) Both places sort of imposes an unwritten contract that you spend money in order to get access, coffee shops more so than the mall; at restaurants it’s pretty much mandatory. Equally so are the gas stations that double as bathroom break opportunities on long road trips: buy petrol for the privilege. Public-funded highway rest stops are few and far in between.
Going to the restroom, one of the most basic human needs this side (literally) of eating food and drinking water, should be a public good. Asia gets this; America, sadly doesn’t.
Japan being Japan, it takes what Asia does and takes it to a far higher level. Not only are there public restrooms aplenty anywhere you go, the cleanliness of the facilities and quality of the amenities are are top notch. We’ve all heard of Japan’s fussiness about toilets, with the common integration of a bidet, and the heating of toilet seats; I can confidently say it is all true: not only in private homes, but in public toilets as well. I’m not exactly sure why, but Japan takes restrooms really seriously.
Take for example the restrooms in the Family Mart nearby our Airbnb, the place where we breakfast at nearly every day of the trip. Firstly, just the fact there are restrooms in a convenient store is quite exciting; Hong Kong 7-Elevens and Circle Ks don’t have such features. Naturally, the restrooms in the Family Mart are very clean, though the surprise is the toilet fixture itself: you’d be logically to expect a simple unit, given its public nature, but contrarily it’s extravagant and decked-out. The seat of course is heated, and there’s a bidet function with many adjustments; fairly standard stuff. But, there’s more: the toilet will run its water while you’re doing your business, to mask the noise, and should you desire to mask the smell too, it can drop a solution for that.
Imagine public restroom facilities like that, spread everywhere all over Japan, even in what you’d call remote areas. It’s quite a system to behold.
Indeed, Japan does supremely well to provide for the human basics of its citizenry, and we tourists reap the benefits as well. As mentioned previously, convenient stores and vending machines are absolutely everywhere, and when combined with the immense public restroom infrastructure, it makes a day of sightseeing that much easier and more fun. Because unlike here in the States, I never have to hold one in while desperately looking for a restroom.
Obviously then, I like Japan a lot.
Day three called for an even earlier start than the day before, due to the peculiarities of where we were going. This is the look of our block at about 4:15 in the morning. Needless to say, we bought some vending machine coffee on the way to the train station.
Right behind the vending machine was parked this awesome commercial-spec Toyota HiAce van.
The sun has already broke by the time we arrived at the destination station, around 5:20 AM.
The reason for such an early wakeup call is so we can catch the auctions at Toyosu Market. One of the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, this modern, state-of-the-art campus was opened just last year as the replacement for the famous Tsukiji fish market, a mile and a half away. While Tsukiji still retains numerous shops and eateries, and offers a more historical flair, Toyosu is the new and only place to watch the live auctions.
We can see the scant early morning traffic as we walked towards the auction building.
To see so much giant frozen tuna in one place is something special, and well worth waking up at 4:00 AM. My lens cannot do justice the sheer scale of the entire complex.
Because unlike the old Tsukiji markets, Toyosu restricts the public from the auction floor; viewers are relegated to an enclosed promenade on an upper floor, with windows to peer down below. It’s less exciting, but far more sanitary - and I’m sure the merchants rather like conducting business without a mass of public nosying nearby. Shooting through thick glass with heavy condensation (the auction room is climate-controlled for obvious reasons) meant I was unable to get a wide shot.
What is the thing to do after waking up ridiculously early to watch people auction off some fresh fish? Eat some sushi, of course. You indeed cannot travel to Japan without consuming sushi, and we’ve been holding off for the first few days until we visit Toyosu to have our first taste. To be sure, just about any sushi place in Japan is likely better than what we have in the States, but to have the top quality stuff, my friend the planner took me to this place right near Toyosu market.
It’s a restaurant called Daiwa Sushi. Guests sit bar-style surrounding the production area, where you can see the slabs of fish meat and the chefs cutting them up and forming the sushi pieces. You can order whatever fish/style you want by simply asking the chef, though if you’re like us and don’t speak Japanese all that well (if at all), ask for chef’s choice: omakase. For about $45 per person, you get a selection of sushi as chosen by the chef.
Complimentary is green tea and a bowl of miso soup.
Our sushi was made by this white-haired chef who seems have been making sushi his entire adult life, so dexterous he was with his technique. Suffice it to say, it’s the best pieces of sushi I’ve ever had. I can’t go back to the deep-fried monstrosities that have become en vogue here in America.
Japan’s neatness and attention-to-detail in full display.
After eating the best sushi I’ve ever had, it was still not yet 7AM, quite early. Before we headed back to our Airbnb for a quick recharge of body batteries, we took some time to walk around the rest of the Toyosu premises.
First we went up to a deserted roof-deck garden, expectedly so for an early morning on a weekday
With the summer games only a year away, there’s rightfully lots of construction going on throughout Tokyo.
Toyosu is a vast complex indeed if the loading docks can be situated on a floor that’s higher than ground level. Imagine the network of passageways necessary for trucks to comfortably drive up there to deliver or pickup produce.
Who said there aren’t wide spaces in Japan? Granted, this plot of land where Toyosu is situated is entirely man-made and filled out from open water. Older parts of Tokyo would never have sidewalks this wide.
From the roof-deck we went inside to the markets proper, looking at the sections of Toyosu where the general public can buy directly from vendors.
I particular liked this mural, showing how it’s done at the old Tsukiji market.
I’ve never seen such properly demarcated parking accommodations for bikes of any motivation.
After a morning spent at Toyosu market, we slithered back to our Airbnb for a slight rest before heading back out. After a long day two yesterday and with another long day ahead in the next day’s forecast (spoiler alert), we were definitely trying to take it easier on day three. I am a firm believer that one shouldn’t overstretch themselves to try to cramp in as many activities as possible during travel; isn’t the whole point of taking time off from work is so that you can take a reprieve being tired and stressed?
So it wasn’t until the afternoon did we venture back out to our second and final destination for the day. Oddly, we went back to the about the same area we were just at earlier in the morning: Odaiba district.
Look at the sign for Rainbow bridge; fairly certain we passed or used this same piece of road the previous evening whilst karting…
The reason for returning to Odaiba district for a third time within the span of less than 24 hours is to visit the second car-related spot for this trip: Mega Web Toyota City. Basically a super elaborate marketing exercise for Toyota, the Mega Web complex houses a superb showroom of all currently available Toyota models, a separate museum building for older cars, and road facilities for test drives.
There’s even a ferris wheel on the premise, so it’s rather kids friendly, too.
Of course, my focus is entirely on the cars, and the massive showroom. I already know there’s going to be many pain-points when I see cool models that are not available in the States.
Like this Toyota Crown sedan. I’d so much have this four-door than the bog-standard and boring Toyota Camry we get in America. Very nice shade of orange, too.
What is available in the States is the wonderful new Corolla, and this blue is the color to get.
Mega City was my first opportunity to lay eyes on the new Supra. I think it looks much better in the flesh, with the proportions better resolved than what pictures can show. However, the front-end remains a tad incongruent in my eyes.
I think the front hood is definitely too high, no doubt a consequence of pedestrian crash safety regulations. As it stands it makes the Supra look bigger in photographs than it really is.
No complaints about the rear-end design, however: it’s brilliantly executed.
The best detail of the new Supra: the sculpted rear haunches. It’s so wide you can have a picnic on the horizontal surface.
Next to the new GR Supra is a few GRMN-branded Toyota cars that’s sadly not for American consumption. Why? Because these won’t sell in the appropriate numbers in our SUV-crazed market.
The finest parts from Japan, though not available for overnighting.
Surely this is how a car enthusiast go broke.
The now rather venerable Toyota 86.
I was disappointed that a Lexus LFA was not present at Mega Web, though I guess the showroom is truly dedicated only to cars currently on sale. This LFA racing car will suffice. I’d sell a kidney just to hear the sonorous V-10 engine sing.
Toyota Century: the car of choice for the Japan imperial family, and other high-ranking members of society. This is a car to be driven in, rather than drive.
A literal dream come true: I got to sit in the greatest van ever produced: the Toyota HiAce.
From the new car showroom, we ventured over to the History Garage, the museum part of the Mega Web experience. First, we checked out some rallying legends:
The word “iconic” still isn’t adequate enough to describe this particular machine: a Toyota Celica GT-Four rally car adorned in the world-famous Castrol livery.
What a car.
Slightly peculiar to see this, a Toyota MR2 rally test mule, from a racing program that never made it to a starting grid. All that’s left is this awesome prototype.
Further on we have probably the most legendary Toyota car in its entire history: the 2000GT coupe. Produced in the late 60s, this diminutive sports car was a proof-of-concept that Japanese manufacturers can go toe-to-toe with the best of Europe.
I would like to know the story of how this United States-plated sample found itself in the Toyota museum in Japan.
I reckon this absolutely pristine sample of a fourth-generation Toyota Supra would fetch quite a bit of money if it were to be made available in the auction market. Factory-fresh examples of the famous tuner car of the 90s and 2000s are immensely hard to come by.
The History Garage wasn’t entirely Toyota-centric: there were important vehicles from other marques as well, such as this Porsche 356A 1600S coupe in a lovely teal color.
And this Bluebird two-door coupe from rival brand Nissan.
Also from Nissan is the genesis of the GT-R legend: the KPGC-10 Skyline GT-R, the “Hakosuka”.
Rounding out the Japanese “big three” with a spunky little Honda S600 convertible.
Inside the museum is a gift shop, where amongst the memorabilia available is an entire aisle dedicated to die-cast scale models of a variety of cars. It was a danger zone for me indeed because it’s highly tempting to want to buy simply everything. I almost dropped some considerable coin for this precisely detailed model of the iconic AE86 from the Initial D anime.
Next to the gift shop is a cafe area with a vast windowed section where you can look into the restoration shop. As per usual for Japan, the workshop looks meticulously organized, and you just know these two “takumi”s do splendid work.
Right outside from the museum, you can see the test-driving area. Foreigners wishing to participate need only an international license.
I actually wouldn’t have mind testing driving one of these.
A short walk across the plaza from Mega Web is our final sightseeing item for our relatively short day three: the giant Gundam statue.
It’s situated in front of a mall.
Not feeling nearly satisfied with the amount of sushi fill we got from earlier in the day, for dinner we went to a typical conveyor-style sushi spot near our Airbnb, where you pay by the plate.
Confirmed: even a random sushi spot is better than 95% of what we can get in America. The chefs ensure the pieces are fresh, too: any sushi that hasn’t been eaten within a certain time frame gets thrown out. If memory serves me correctly, between my friend and I we demolished 22 plates’ worth.
Onwards to day number four.
On these sort of oversea trips, we like to spend a bit of time in at least one other city of the particular country. When we went to South Korea two years ago, our main attraction was Seoul, but we also spent a few days in Busan and Jeju. For this Japan Escape, we picked Kyoto, the old capital city. Looking to maximize our time for what amounts to a one-day trip, we took the first available bullet train out of Tokyo main station at 6:26 AM.
Like the rest of the city, Tokyo main station is under heavy renovation in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics next year. Thankfully, temporary signage were put up to guide clueless foreigners like us towards where we need to go.
After hearing about it for all my life, I was massively excited to finally ride on the Shinkansen. Hikari 501 was our train.
And I shall conclude part three of this Japan Escape photo story with some videos I took of the scenery outside the train as we sped along towards Kyoto. In the next part, you’ll see exactly what kind of stuff we got into at the old capital of Japan.