{"id":969,"date":"2010-11-29T22:51:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T15:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2010-11-29T22:51:01","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T15:51:01","slug":"tokyo-the-land-of-sushi-sake-and-quirky-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2010\/11\/29\/tokyo-the-land-of-sushi-sake-and-quirky-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo… the land of sushi, sake and quirky stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled:<\/strong> 41,739<\/p>\n

We had 3 goals in going to Tokyo;\u00a0 1. Leave Taiwan so that we didn\u2019t overstay our visa. 2.\u00a0 Eat \u00a03. Shop.\u00a0 We happily succeeded in all our goals.<\/p>\n

Although both of us had been to Tokyo before (and I had lived there for a brief time \u2013 albeit 20 years ago), we decided we would go back because we wanted to try great cuisine and browse quirky, fun stores.<\/p>\n

Our first night, we had sushi \u2013 surprise, surprise.\u00a0 On the recommendation of a friend (thanks Adam!) we headed to a place near our hotel in Shinjuku.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Numazukou and offers \u2018conveyor belt\u2019 sushi.<\/p>\n

\"Numazukou<\/a><\/p>\n

The price of the sushi depends on the color of the plate (you can see Tony is practicing being Asian)<\/p>\n

\"Tokyo,<\/a><\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve had enough sushi goodness and you are ready for the bill, the waiter counts each plate color and tallies up the price.\u00a0 Gotta love that Japanese efficiency!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Amanogawa<\/a><\/p>\n

The next day, we continued the good food trend.\u00a0 We went to a small restaurant that serves omakase tempura.\u00a0 Omasake means \u2018chef\u2019s special\u2019 and it is basically a set meal of the chef\u2019s choosing.\u00a0 The tempura was fantastic \u2013 not at all as oily or heavy as tempura in the US.\u00a0 And it was fun to sit at the counter and watch the chef make it right in front of you.<\/p>\n

\"Tsunahachi<\/a><\/p>\n

To walk off lunch, we headed to Harajuku.\u00a0 This district is known for its quirky, funky boutiques that serve Japan’s hip youngsters.\u00a0\u00a0 There are hundreds of small stores selling odd things.\u00a0 Tony and I had fun at what we call \u2018dongxi\u2019 stores.\u00a0 \u201cdongxi\u201d means \u201csomething\u201d or \u201cthing\u201d in Mandarin.\u00a0 If you are looking for dongxis, this is the place. \u00a0As the sign below says “Let’s go to there……”<\/p>\n

\"Harajuku,<\/a><\/p>\n

That evening, we met up with Tony\u2019s high school classmates who live in Japan. \u00a0We ate at a small Izakaya restaurant in the Ebiza area.\u00a0 The restaurant\u2019s menu was printed in Japanese and lined the walls of the restaurant.\u00a0 Luckily, Tony\u2019s friends read and spoke Japanese.\u00a0 The food \u2013 wonderful!<\/p>\n

\"Honoji,<\/a><\/p>\n

But the highlight of the evening was the sake bar we went to after dinner.<\/p>\n

\"Tokyo,<\/a><\/p>\n

It pours various sakes into small jars and then freezes them.\u00a0 It believes in serving sake at extremely cold temps.\u00a0 But the best part is the glasses they use.\u00a0 Each has a different picture or sticker and the best part is that you can keep the glass!<\/p>\n

\"Tokyo,<\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the wall of glasses\u2026 or is it a door\u2026. hmmm<\/p>\n

\"Tokyo,<\/a><\/p>\n

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”!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled: 41,739 We had 3 goals in going to Tokyo;\u00a0 1. Leave Taiwan so that we didn\u2019t overstay our visa. 2.\u00a0 Eat \u00a03. Shop.\u00a0 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 \u2013 albeit 20 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}