Tokyo… the land of sushi, sake and quirky stores

Total Miles Traveled: 41,739

We had 3 goals in going to Tokyo;  1. Leave Taiwan so that we didn’t overstay our visa. 2.  Eat  3. Shop.  We happily succeeded in all our goals.

Although both of us had been to Tokyo before (and I had lived there for a brief time – albeit 20 years ago), we decided we would go back because we wanted to try great cuisine and browse quirky, fun stores.

Our first night, we had sushi – surprise, surprise.  On the recommendation of a friend (thanks Adam!) we headed to a place near our hotel in Shinjuku.  It’s called Numazukou and offers ‘conveyor belt’ sushi.

The price of the sushi depends on the color of the plate (you can see Tony is practicing being Asian)

When you’ve had enough sushi goodness and you are ready for the bill, the waiter counts each plate color and tallies up the price.  Gotta love that Japanese efficiency!

After great sushi, we headed to a sake bar/restaurant – this one was on the second floor of the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. The sake guy was really great – he gave us a flight from dry to sweet and aged/unaged. We learned that I like dry sakes while Tony likes something in between sweet and dry.

The next day, we continued the good food trend.  We went to a small restaurant that serves omakase tempura.  Omasake means ‘chef’s special’ and it is basically a set meal of the chef’s choosing.  The tempura was fantastic – not at all as oily or heavy as tempura in the US.  And it was fun to sit at the counter and watch the chef make it right in front of you.

To walk off lunch, we headed to Harajuku.  This district is known for its quirky, funky boutiques that serve Japan’s hip youngsters.   There are hundreds of small stores selling odd things.  Tony and I had fun at what we call ‘dongxi’ stores.  “dongxi” means “something” or “thing” in Mandarin.  If you are looking for dongxis, this is the place.  As the sign below says “Let’s go to there……”

That evening, we met up with Tony’s high school classmates who live in Japan.  We ate at a small Izakaya restaurant in the Ebiza area.  The restaurant’s menu was printed in Japanese and lined the walls of the restaurant.  Luckily, Tony’s friends read and spoke Japanese.  The food – wonderful!

But the highlight of the evening was the sake bar we went to after dinner.

It pours various sakes into small jars and then freezes them.  It believes in serving sake at extremely cold temps.  But the best part is the glasses they use.  Each has a different picture or sticker and the best part is that you can keep the glass!

Check out the wall of glasses… or is it a door…. hmmm

OK folks, that’s it for this post. More to come from our few days in Tokyo, including our “best food day ever”, the Tsukiji fish market, and the Kappabashi “Kitchentown”!