Tokyo

After staying in Izu we returned to Tokyo, so Rika could catch up with Kyoko and I could have a shakuhachi lesson with Christopher

Video:  Hannah taking the Shinkansen

 

In Tokyo, we stayed at the International House in Roppongi which is very nice and has an enormous garden.

We were just getting settled in and enjoying the facilities like the modern loos.... 

...when the building was rattled by a long earthquake.   It was only a 4.9m but the center was east Tokyo Bay so we got some good shaking.  

On Saturday we were able to take Hannah to Roppongi  to see the 'church' where her parents first met.  Unfortunately it closed a few years back and has been replaced by a new building containing a bunny club called 'zen'.

The bar next door  'Mogambos' which I visited many times and liked a lot had also closed down recently, as had many of the other iconic gaijin bars of the 1990s like Paddy Foleys.   Roppongi seemed very quiet with very few foreigners except the african touts.      

To me this was a sobering reflection of the collapse of employment of gaijin bankers and their supporting community as all the big banks have downsized and off-shored operations.  The old era has truly passed and Tokyo is feels much less international  than before.