Earlier in January, I walked inside Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden with a couple of friends living in Oakhouse Kichijoji 2. We had a lunch in Shinjuku and decided to walk inside Shinjuku Gyoen after lunch. Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is a fairly big park right at the heart of Tokyo and walkable from Shinjuku Station.
The massive park is also known as one of the best spot for Hanami. With its convenient location, it is known as one of the popular spots for tourists as well. In the park, you get to see the tall buildings of Shinjuku which reminds you that how close this giant park is located to one of the busiest areas of Tokyo.

Entering the park requires an admission fee (500 yen per adult) but it used to be only 200 yen just a year ago. The metropolitan government says one of the reasons of this change is due to the increasing number of foreign tourists and the increased revenue is going to be spent on staff’s language education as well as internationalizing the park by increasing multi lingual signs available. The government also confirmed later that the park is going to be available longer during the day, thanks to the fee increase, especially in peak months known as “Hanami seasons” as the site is known as one of the most popular spots for its beautiful cherry blossoms in the park.
However, locals know what’s really behind this sudden increase of the admission fee. In 2017, surprising news article was posted and it says 71 years old employee who used to work in the park as a staff has been letting foreign tourists go through the gate without collecting the 200 yen admission fee for 2 years and half.

The prime example of xenophobia in Japan

The news article reported at least 160,000 foreigners visited the park without paying the fee which resulted in a loss of 25 million yen. The staff said he stopped collecting money from foreigners because he got yelled by one of the foreigners and he felt scared of foreigners ever since. He also said he does not speak any foreign language which is why he had a hard time communicating with the foreign tourists.

This was one of the major news back when the news came out and it went viral on social media not just because everyone knows the name of the park and no one noticed that this whole thing was going on for more than 2 years but but also because it was a prime example of xenophobia that still exists among Japanese people.
There’s no excuse for what this staff did even if he was an old guy with no language skills and no experience with any foreigners in his life. I was just surprised that this happened just a couple of years ago in Tokyo where the city is known to be the most international city in Japan.
Anyway, if you happen to hear your friends have been to the national garden before, make sure to ask them if they have paid the fee at the entrance.

I rarely go for Chinese food when I eat out. Simply because there are just too many restaurants around Tachikawa Garden Town. I even cook some Chinese food at home sometimes. I guess the reason I don’t go to Chinese restaurant is because I’d like to eat something that I usually don’t eat or something I cannot cook at home. This might change, though, thanks to the restaurant that I found recently.
I guess it’s the same in any country… Chinese food is so common that people have higher standard than all the other food. Instead of going for full service, high-end Chinese restaurants, there’s one restaurant that serves great affordable Chinese food. I recently dined at this restaurant and I was quite surprised by its quality even though it’s a restaurant chain. The food at this restaurant was great overall but there’s one specific food that I liked the most which is the one called Mapo Doufu.

Two kinds of spiciness, ma and la

Some Chinese food changed quite a bit from its original form and became something very different in Japan. Like ramen, for example, is probably the most well-known example of those Chinese descendant. Mapo Doufu is another example.
Mapo Doufu is Chinese dish that represents Chinese food in Japan. Basically everyone knows what it is. It’s originally from Sichuan province in China where food is known as very spicy. Mapo Doufu consists of diced tofu in a spicy soup with minced meat in it. The soup is typically flavored with Sichuan pepper and red pepper.
Despite of how it looks, it is quite simple and easy to cook as long as you have the right kind of material. It is often cooked at home too. The thing is… a simple food like this isn’t always easy to make it tastes great.
There are some fine Chinese restaurants that serves high quality Mapo Doufu but this is kind of a rare case. Because Mapo Doufu is usually expected to be on the menu in any casual Chinese restaurants, people don’t really expect it to be fancy or high quality. People just want it to be as something they’re used to.

Only one restaurant in Tama area

I was surprised to find Longhu Dining, Chinese restaurant chain, serving such a high quality Mapo Doufu in Mori Town which is a shopping mall located in front of Akishima station. The restaurant looks just like any other casual Chinese restaurant.
Long-hu is apparently a nation-wide restaurant chain available not only in Tokyo but in other several prefectures in Japan but there’s only one in entire Tama area.

Served in a boiling hot stone bowl

There are many kinds of Chinese food available at this restaurant. All great but make sure to try Mapo Doufu. It’s served in a boiling hot stone bowl with a wooden lid on the top. Opening the lid is the moment that everyone says wow. It’s so spicy that just getting rid of this lid makes you cough.
The thick soup with Chinese spicy bean paste is very rich in flavor. If you think it’s too spicy, give it some time until the whole bowl gets cooled down.

Sichuan peppers and red peppers are both described as spicy but they are actually different kind of spiciness. Red pepper spicy is the one everyone knows which is described as “la” in Chinese. The other one is “ma” which is more like peppery spicy. At this restaurant you can specify each level of the spiciness.
This dish itself costs only about 700 yen. The amount was not much but it was very satisfying thanks to it’s spiciness. Given the quality of food they serve, I thought the this was amazing for the cost. I understand why this place can be popular now. It’s a separate deal but their dessert, Chinese almond jelly was also great.

Earlier in December I saw an interesting flyer on the first floor of GRANDUO. It is one of the big commercial buildings next to JR Tachikawa Station and I go there pretty often. The flyer says the rooftop of the building is open during from the 14th in December to Christmas day. The rooftop is mostly closed simply because there’s nothing much in there. I was curious to go up there just because I’m familiar with the building but I have never seen the view. My friend and his family came over to Tachikawa on the next day and we decided to go up together. It turned out it was a great place with a view.

Christmas light decoration

NOEL illumination is the name of this special event. The rooftop was also open last year just for one day which I didn’t know. GRANDUO decided to make it a 10 days event instead one-day this year. Apparently many people visited there and they liked it.
When my friend and I went up there, we were surprised to see how big the place was. The rooftop was built with some outside lights for night time. I assume this spacious floor was built for people to come. It is such a waste to open this place just for winter. It should be open in summer as well for BBQ or something too.

The view was also amazing. GRANDUO building should be one of the tallest buildings in Tachikawa beside the skyscraper built next to the station. Look at the photo below and you can see how tall the building is.
Tachikawa Garden Town which is an Oakhouse apartment and where I live is not too far away from this building by the way it only takes about 10 mins by walk.

It was not just the floor open for people to come. There were several benches and a live music performance. Even a free cup of hot chocolate was served for everyone. It was such a nice warm day with with no clouds in the sky but still a winter day with a bit of wind. We could really use some hot drinks.
Christmas lights are something that most people came here for. It was so nice that we came back here another time for some golden time photos.

The sky was clear enough for us to even take a photo of Mt. Fuji. Just so you know, Mt. Fuji is not too hard to see in Tachikawa. I live on the 3rd floor of Tachikawa Garden Town and I can see the Mt. Fuji from there too.

The rooftop of GRANDUO was totally awesome and I recommend everyone to take a look even if it’s just for a view. It’s a shame that it’s mostly closed within a year. They should make use of such big space for their business, it would be a great place for some drinks at night.
GRANDUO also did a good job with putting fake grass on the surface of the rooftop. It’s nice to see some green and kids can run around without getting hurt. I’d come back there next year!