As if an all expensed paid trip to Japan to work with an experienced
travel writer on an award-winning travel guide wasn’t enough, my prize for
winning the World Nomads travel writing scholarship also included a “Flavours
of Tokyo” tour, courtesy of Intrepid Travel... Yup - I’m pretty
much the luckiest girl in the world.
Over the course of this 2-day private tour with my fantastic guide,
Tatsuya, I was treated to a Japanese cooking class, a Soba noodle-making class,
an early morning sushi feast at the Tsukiji fish market, breakfasts, lunches,
dinners, coffees and countless other snacks along the way…. Basically, I ate my
way across Tokyo and it was awesome.
In addition to all the eating, we caught an excellent performance at
Kabuki-za (see my previous blog post), visited the Tokyo Anime Centre, browsed
in Bonsai shops, had one very bizarre experience at ‘Maid Café’, strolled
around Ginza, Akhiabara, Shibuya, Harajuku, Asakusa and Ueno, and shopped at
just about every stationary and 100yen store in the greater Tokyo area (that
last bit was kind of my fault and resulted in approximately 7kg of excess
baggage – almost all of which was origami or Hello Kitty related).
Amidst all of this, we drew our fortunes at the Sensoji temple in
Asakusa, but while Tatsuya got the best luck fortune, mine strangely read: “Bad
Luck” and instructed me not to take on any new jobs or travel at the moment
(eeek!). Tatsuya told me to leave my bad fortune card at the temple for Buddha
to take care of… he also bought me a good-luck charm for my cell phone – y’know,
just in case Buddha was a bit busy that day.
Intrepid kindly put me up for 4 nights at the stunning Shigetsu Ryokan
in Asakusa - a charming hotel with both Western and
traditional Japanese rooms that is just a stones throw from Sensoji temple and
the colourful, shop-filled Nakamise dori that leads towards it. From my gorgeous tatami room I had a
view of the 5-pillar pagoda at Sensoji temple, while upstairs in the communal
onsen, these views extended far out across the Asakusa skyline… there are worse
ways to end a long day than taking in the cityscape views while soaking your
muscles in the onsen, let me tell you.
Muscle soaking and good food aside, Intrepid is a company that takes
responsible travel and ecotourism very seriously. The ‘take only pictures, leave only footprints’ ethos of
such is clearly represented in their efforts to respect and uphold local
culture and to minimise the environmental impact of their tours. To this end, Intrepid provide all tour
members with an information package containing do’s and don’ts of cultural
etiquette in addition to a lot of interesting background information on the
sights, areas, activities and cultural elements involved in their tours. They also give tour members a few
eco-friendly gifts upon arrival – on my tour it was an eco-bag (to cut down on
the use of plastic) and a pair of re-usable chopsticks (to eliminate some of
the 24 billion pairs of waribashi, disposable chopsticks, that
are thrown away annually in Japan). These efforts really are eye-opening,
refreshing and commendable.
Stay tuned for more posts about my experiences on this awesome Intrepid
tour.
