All the food in Tokyo (and drink)! 12/27/22

 The bed was tiny- at least for Andy. Oh yes this will be the first of many. The breakfast was delish- Japanese, Chinese, American food- we did all of the above. First face scan for a temperature check, and you must wear a glove when you get food.  

First we hit up the fish market. One subway train ride away, easy peasy. Andy got the Suica card yesterday that can be used at a ton of stores and for transportation. I got the Pasmo which is basically the same w a deposit. These cards r nice since every place still uses cash, so weird. We didn’t get pushed and squashed on the train like I’ve seen on YouTube, oh well better luck next time. The fish market was super cool. Lots of narrow alleys with all the fishes and wagu and cooking goods. We had a deep fried pork cake and waited in line for some rice and meat dish. That was not my favorite- I definitely tasted organs. 

We found some guy making pour over coffee in the smallest shop ever and Andy had to try it. Then we headed to Hamarikyu Gardens. It was a beautiful sunny day. Cold but lovely. The gardens were in their winter slumber but we caught the tail end of some maples with color, some other flowers in bloom, and some plum(?) blossoms starting. We saw a pine tree that was 300 years old! Most of the trees in the park were very manicured and this old tree was almost laying on its side with posts holding it up. Very cool. 

Next stop was the shopping district in Nakamise. We went into the most insane store that pretty much had anything you could have wanted. It was sensory overload, all the singing and adverts and lights. So distracting even if you wanted something you wouldn’t remember when you were there. 

Last stop was move food. We found a small ramen shop (finally) and were stoked. We had to first order from the vending machine, luckily the waiting had a picture menu so we pointed and he pointed to the right button on the machine. The ramen was so good. It was some kind of creamy chicken broth.  Very filling and delish. 

We rested at the hotel for several hours before we went to Setagaya City to meet Simon for the food and drink tour. We’ve never done one before but I wanted to get some real Japanese food we normally wouldn’t have ordered plus visit some local spots. Simon is a dude from Zimbabwae who grew up in the UK and has lived in Tokyo for 20 years. 

We first ate tonkatsu, some pork dish with a lot of fried coating and lots of sauce. The pieces were huge and it was a little slimy. I could only eat a couple, and barely. Then we went to an upstairs joints where all the seats were on the ground, Andy isn’t a fan. The hot tops in the middle of the table were to cook your own. We made a Tokyo pancake made from cabbage, fish eggs, something else almost holding it together, then the cheddar cheese. The taste was as random as it sounds. It was ok but check to trying it. The chicken wings were the best though, plus the beer and the warm sake. Next he took us to a bar that had a hidden door. In back room we had sushi and cold sake. He taught us that the % on the back means how much if the rice sheath was taken off. Only hobos drink anything higher than 75%, 50%-75%  has more flavor and less than 59% is so smooth it almost tastes like water. Some mix sakes so you have the light flavor for part of it and partial sake of the higher % for flavor. The night was a blast. We were out for almost 5 hours. I felt like it the next morning.