Last day

I went to meet Shinya for lunch today and on my way there I realised how the native males have a terrible fondness for handbags or rather, man-bags as they are now called.


Lunch was at a traditional Japanese restaurant where most of the locals were having a Sunday lunch. I decided against having any raw fish today cos my tummy felt funny after all those beers and very spicy grade 7 coco curry last night. So I took a safe bet and had a Oyako donburi setto. I kinda wished I had something a little different but since i was gonna be leaving japan but I decided against it.


Did some last minute shopping and rushed back to the shoebox. We were running terribly late, any later and I would have missed my flight for sure.

Managed to get one nice picture on the train there of the paddy fields...

After a pretty harrowing check in and a hurried goodbye to Neil, I realised I was the last one to board but not before a very through screening before boarding, almost short of a strip search, no thanks to my accidental terrorist look(unshaven beard and green military-esq shirt)

On board, the food was nasty.

Read all about it here.
When will i every be bumped up to business class??

Day 16

I woke up with quite a terrible hangover and I just wanted to stay in bed, but i had to meet Neil, Mariko-san and her friends for Mariko's birthday lunch.

We met at Shibuya and headed to an Italian restaurant(Mariko digs Italian food). We each order a different entree and to my surprise we all had little side plates to share the different pasta dishes. I wondered if it was a Japanese thing to split your main course like that but I guess the girls wanted to try each other's dishes.

Dessert came in the form of a birthday platter for Mariko, topped with various desserts that the restaurant had on offer.

This is So. He has a voracious appetite

A very big cone

So likes being swung

After saying our goodbyes to Mariko and her friends, I took Neil to the amusement park next to Tokyo Dome to ride on the Thunder Dolphin, a roller coaster ride. We must have gone on it at least 3 times.

We had such a blast that Neil insisted that we did the touristy thing and purchase the photo that they take while riding the roller coaster(of course we had to strike a posed).


We had one last meal at Coco curry, Neil as usual had the Katsu.

I was more adventurous and had 2 small curries of varying levels of heat. One a grade one(left plate which had no taste of curry whatsoever, and the other a grade 9 which was quite unbearable(right plate).

We head back to the shoebox and to Neil's horror he comes across a cockroach on the wall. He smacks it with a roll of newspaper and puts it in the toilet bowl...

...and gives it the ultimate insult by taking a shit on it

Fun with some souvenir stockings that we got from the sex shop that was run by a middle aged Japanese woman.

A last romp around Baraki Nakayama

Good old ciggie vending machine

....and a beer vending machine!


A last stop at the convenience store for a bento

One last bento

Day 15

Ok I have one last full day to myself. Neil has gone away to the coast with Mariko where they will celebrate her birthday but I will still be meeting them and a few or Mariko's friends tomorrow for a birthday lunch.

I head down to Tokyo Station in the morning where it was pissing down. I didn't relish walking around the whole day in wet shoes so I decided to stay indoors. Did window shopping in Ginza after breakfast at Tokyo station.

Scrambled eggs, toast and a sliver of ham. I have yet to see brown or whole grain bread here, only white.

Lunch was a selection of Chinese styled dumplings from the food hall of Seiyu but there was just no where to sit and eat. I walked and walked in the maze of underground passages that linked all the malls and subways. Not a single bench in sight. The steps of a staircase would suffice but if they were not wet from the rain and the constant flow of human traffic I almost gave up hope until I chanced upon a bench near the underground entrance to one of the malls. Balancing the flimsy plastic tray on my lap and pouring soy sauce onto the lid, I tried to devour all of it asap after realising that I was sitting just outside the toilets.


I chanced upon these lovely crunchy bits on sale at one of the food halls in Ginza. Very nice.


The weather being too wet for any outdoor photograpy I decided to visit a few museums in Meguro.
One of them was the very informative Meguro Parasite Museum

We are full of parasites

And birds too

And cats!

Oishi

There were other not so plesant pictures that I took at the parasite museum but I figured its not something that should be on a food blog.


Standing ramen stall in Meguro...I wanted to try it but I was still full from the dumplings I had for lunch.

I head down to Shinjuku to do a little bit more shopping followed by a night of drinking.


Shinjuku is abuzz with people going everywhere.

The anti-smoking signs placed in the designated smoking areas on the street are so cute!

Downtown Shinjuku at night
The rest of the night was an alcohol-induced haze and i don't want to go into detail. Details will be given upon request ;)

Day 14 -Sumo town, Akihabara, Asakusa

Big ass shorts
I finally made it to Ryogoku where the sumo stables are located. But upon walking around Sumo town and finding not a single sumo wrestler in sight, I found out later that the they were all at a tournament in Nagoya. Dissapointed, I walked over to the Edo-Tokyo museum but decided not to go in as I felt like I should make the most of this sunny day and not spend time indoors.

I considered having Chanko-Nabe, a hearty one pot dish with noodles, vegetables with meat of seafood eaten by Sumo wrestlers but I was a bit worried that the portion would be exceptionally huge and would be unable to finish it.

I have heard of maid cafes but nun cafes?
I leave for Akihabara to do some shopping. I can't afford any kind of electronic gadgets(thats what this place is famous for) but instead got some retro ultramen monsters figurines.

Some other crazy shit that is available here in Akihabara
I walk around finding a place to eat and stumble across a signboard that had a few hearty looking stews on the menu.

mmmmmmmm......


I had about 2 hours before meeting my friend Akira so I squeezed in a quick visit to the nearby Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. I visited this place back in 2001 but it has gotten even more touristy since then, with a plethora of shops with covered walkways leading to the temple.

Worshippers that visit the temple let smoke from the insence pot linger onto their body-apparently its healing.

A fugu(pufferfish) shop - another thing that I didn't get to eat

Tabi-toe divider shoes

I finally saw the Phillip-Stark designed Asahi building when leaving Sensoji, had wanted to find it on my previous trip but didn't have enough time. I would have wanted to go to the bar and museum there but it was getting late and had to meet Akira.

Weird signs along the way

No standing?


Great view from the top of Tokyo Dome hotel.
At Idabashi Akira takes me to Tokyo Dome hotel for drinks and later dinner at a Yakitori styled place that had too many things on the menu.

I didn't eat that much after the late lunch at Akihabara but wask kinda peckish by the time I got back to Baraki Nakayama. I got me a super yummy sandwhich from the convienence store

and some fried chicken that the Engrish boy didn't agree with

Day 13 - Tsukiji

Yet another rainy day in Tokyo but I only have a few days left here so I had better make a trip to Tsukiji rain or shine.

I braved the rush hour crowd with Neil.

Tsukiji fishmarket is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. The suprisingly unfishy-smelling expanse which sees 2000 metric tons of seafood pass through daily is not only a must see for a foodie in Japan but for anyone on a budget cos its free!

Being my 2nd trip to there(the 1st was on my earlier trip to Tokyo 4 years back) I couldnt help but realise that there was less variety of fish on display. Don't know if its cos of overfishing or probably cos I was late(it was almost 9am by the time I got there-some businesses were already done for the day) but there were still some curious looking seafood on sale.

As I left the huge seafood complex, I came across a not very environmentally friendly aspect of the Japanese obsession with freshness. I hope they recycle.

It was already 11am when i was done exploring and the next must-do when at Tsukiji is to lunch at one of the many shops there. I was thinking of having sushi but had plans to have sushi for dinner with Mariko and Neil so I had my favourite Japanese food which i havent really had since I got to Japan-Unagi!

The Unagi was melt in your mouth.
The owner of the establishment who was fluent in English, took it upon himself to teach me how to order food in Japanese and even wrote it down on a piece of paper (even though I was pretty happy pointing at plastic displays and pictures on menus) and went on to teach me other useful phrases.

After the much needed sustinance, I shopped around for foodstuff: bonito flakes, dried kelp, dried fishy snacks and even got a wasabi grater and a very sharp carbon steel knife(bad idea actually, later find out from neil that carbon steel rusts easily if not take care of properly).


A knife for every occasion


Urrgh.

I crossed over to Ginza and roamed around wondering what I should do the rest of the day. But first I had to take a dump. I saw the Sony building and realised that they should accomodate me since I have spent so much buying their products all these years. So I went in, smiled and made a beeline for the toilet, that came complete with built-in bidet. I came out a new man.


Flopping around in my flip-flops in the rain, I decide to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography where I saw the World Press Photo exhibition and a retrospective of Issabela Huppert (The Piano Teacher, 8 Women) by a whole bunch of different photographers. I can really appreciate the fact that museum visitors in Japan keep extremly silent while viewing photos/works. Can't say the same for Singapore.


Time for dinner with Neil and Mariko where we had sushi back in Ginza, right across the road from Tsukiji. It was a pretty nice restaurant bur felt like such a slob dressed in bermudas and flip flops(i came dressed for rainy weather!) and was quite conscious of my smelly feet(imagine how they would have smelled if I wore shoes instead!) since we had to remove our footwear before sitting crosslegged at the table(uncomfortable after being on my feet all day). Mariko presented Neil and I with matching Jinbeis. Mebbe there will be a Japanese film festival in Singapore where I can wear it to.


Gorgeous starter of a crab jelly topped with salmon roe.


Sushi feast


I think this not unagi but anago... so decadent!


I had my 1st taste of natto...not as bad as I thought it would be, the consistency is similar to the sap from ladies fingers

As we said our goodbyes to Mariko and thanking her again for the Jinbeis and the best sushi that I have had, Neil made a bet with me that that i would be hungry again by the time I get back to the shoebox. And I did.

So it was greasy sauasage buns and beer to end the night...