Our time in Tokyo went quickly and soon it was time to think about packing our bags. We had days where it was 15C, and then the night before we left it began to snow. And it kept snowing. It was a festival of slush in the morning as we made our way to the subway. Probably better that it was slush rather than snow – it would have made for a bumpy time pushing, pulling and dragging the suitcases. One of the many subway lines a short distance from our hotel goes in one direction to Narita airport, and in the other to Haneda, which was our destination.
Before I switch to Singapore adventures I thought I’d finish up with some pictures of the things we ate in Tokyo.
In Akihabara (electronics town) we saw a sign for a restaurant in Yodobashi, one of the big electronics stores.
And sure enough, up on the 8th floor was a collection of restaurants. Grilled fish! Lunchtime set.
Some time back the fish market at Tsukiji was moved to a new location at Toyosu. Its part of a big development and while we were there a new area opened up. It is a building that looks like an older historical building that is full of shops and restaurants, with a fancy new spa/hotel at one end. We thought we’d go check it out. That turned out to not be a great idea. It was a zoo of epic proportions. It was jammed with people and media and we swam like salmon up the main ‘street’ and back. Decided to go to the fish market proper and have lunch.
We went to a restaurant called Yamahara and it was terrific. The special was a seafood bowl. When it arrived it was like a basin with a translucent cover. When everything was just so the server whipped off the cover and trails of smoke rose from the bowl. Smelt good…. but didn’t make the fish taste smokey.
This was chirashi sushi, where the fish and seafood is cut up into pieces and served over rice. It was delicious and fresh. It was also quite a workout with the chopsticks, picking up all those little bits and pieces.
The day we went to Azabudai and Roppongi we went on a bit of a tear. Feeling cheerful after our lunchtime beer we hunted down a bar near our hotel. Bar Kamiya as been in that location since 1880. It is an old school beer hall – noisy, cheerful, old fashioned. They have a signature brandy based drink, so we had to try that.
With beer chasers, of course. (as you can see they do a big pour. The Denki-bran was to the brim and then some….)
And fried octopus.
After that a quick snack at the Korean BBQ place seemed in order.
We slept well that night!
Another place near us was a restaurant called Gonpachi. Nothing too look at from the street, but upstairs was a lovely room looking over the Sumida river. The lunch set was delicious – grilled fish for Wilf, tempura for me.
One thing that always mystifies us while in Japan is how one restaurant will be The Place to Go and people will line up for huge amounts of time to go in. Almost right beside our hotel was such a place. Usually katsu is a fried pork cutlet, but this place does beef cutlets. Starting everyday at 11:00 there would be line up, lasting until about 10:00 at night. Even the night it snowed they were standing out there under umbrellas, shivering. Here is a typical line going down the sidewalk. I don’t think I’d enjoy my meal knowing that there was a tidal wave of people waiting to get in. Always. All the time. People waiting….
So – farewell Tokyo and the winter. On to Singapore and the heat!
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