lesamuel

Viron

For our first breakfast in Tokyo, we listen to our host and went to a local French bakery a couple blocks from our flat. We arrived at about 9am after waking up at five. The bakery outside even had some type of French certificate on display… just in case we doubted the pastries were real . We were the fourth group of people to be seated and the bakery inside smelled delicious. We were presented with a menu for about thirty seconds before we were asked what our selection would be. Our waiter was very nice and recommended the petite dejeuner, which consisted of a large basket of pastries and a selection of nine jams, which all burst with flavor. In the basket was two types of bread, two croissants, two apple turnovers, and two small rolls.

After our light breakfast, we headed downstairs and perused the selection of pastries, which all looked delicious.

Pastries

Pastries

Pastries

I would definitely return here, especially because of how close it was to our apartment! Throughout our stay in Tokyo, finding a great breakfast was harder than it seemed and Viron was definitely up there in terms of taste.

Cup Noodles Museum

After breakfast, we hopped on the subway to Yokohama for the Cup Noodle Museum. It was broiling out when we arrived, and the kilometer walk to the museum did not help. On our way, there appeared to be some type of ferris wheel/Japanese Disneyland. It looked fun although if the pods weren’t a/c’d, it would be very unlikely that I’d go .

Ferris Wheel

Much to my surprise, the museum was packed .

Museum Exterior

Tickets were around five dollars, but the exhibits were actually quite interesting. The museum covers the life of Momofuku Ando and the spread of Cup Noodles throughout the world. The museum also featured a restaurant, Cup Noodle Mini-Factory for kids, and classes on making fresh ramen noodles. We did not get a chance to visit either; there was no room and the class was sold out.

Wall of Cup Noodles

There was also some Cup Noodle Art throughout the exhibits as well as in the main atrium. Besides the Momofuku Ando exhibit, the other highlight of this place would have to be the gift shop . I bought two towels, which were designed with chickens…not sure of the connection to Cup Noodles, but we used them throughout the trip to keep ourselves cool, as we had seen many people do on the street or on the subway.

Cup Noodle Art

This part of our trip was originally just for amusement, but the main exhibit itself was quite captivating. On our walk back to the train station, we decided to walk around Yokohama to see some other sights, and we stumbled upon the Yokohama Museum of Art.

Yokohama Museum of Art

The first thing we did at the museum was check our backpack, which had made the hot weather feel even hotter. Tickets were inexpensive at 1500 yen pp and they were featuring an exhibit by the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, who has done a solo exhibition at the Guggenheims in NYC and Germany. Most of the art (with exception of the wolves) was actually created within the museum and is stunning.

Signage

All of his work throughout the museum had gunpowder involved. In this first portrait, the gunpowder was spread across the paper and actually lit, but he has an incredible touch and used the explosions to “paint” his picture. Later in the exhibition about the exhibition, and I highly recommend watching that in tandem of seeing the amazing art. For some of the next photos which cause stretching of the page, please click to view.

Exhibition (Nighttime Sakura, click to view)

These are pieces from a collection by him called “Summer, Spring, and Fall, and Winter.”

Exhibition

Exhibition (Morning Glory, note the gunpowder residue still on the leaves)

There, were two parts of the exhibition (called There and Back Again) that did not allow photographs. The one below was my favorite of the whole collection, and I could not find pictures online of the other, as the name has slipped my mind.

Exhibition (Head On, photo from website, click to view)

The works were unbelievable and masterful and I would definitely want to see more of his work again. This exhibition is without a doubt the gem of the museum, which we glossed over more so. We skipped out on the gift shop, and headed back to the subway station, where we caught an express train to avoid a long ride back to Shibuya.

ShinQs

The first time we went to the ShinQ was actually entirely accidental; we took the wrong exit and found ourselves in the Japanese version of Whole Foods, which was pretty awesome . Instead of trying to find our way out, we decided to pick up a quick snack from the “Natural Market.” FWIW, the peaches in Japan are outrageously expensive, they were 2 for 650 yen at that market, but they were enormous and delicious. We also picked up some hamachi sashimi, which was reasonable at 450 yen, and headed back to our apartment.

The tomatoes in Japan were also spectacular, so sweet and juicy!

Tomatoes

Drink Selection

Tofu Selection

Snack Selection

After a long first day in Japan, we ate the fish (which was delicious, by the way) and peaches before taking a much-needed nap at 7:30pm…which turned into a deep sleep. I woke up at 12:30 completely clothed and angry that we missed our first opportunity for dinner in Japan! I set my alarm for 3:45: tomorrow was fish market day.

Tsukiji Market

After a disgruntled wake-up, we called an Uber and were on our way to the market at 4am. I would highly recommend looking at a map beforehand, as it was extremely confusing as to where we could and couldn’t enter, be, line up, etc, although this is Tsukiji, so there’s no real set rules . We were informed, much to our dismay that the lining up for the 5:25am tour stops at 3(!!!). Defeated, but nonetheless determined, we still pushed forward and explored the outer market, as it still was about an hour before any of the restaurants opened.

Streets of Tokyo at 4:30am

Tsukiji Market at 4:30am

It’s worth noting that in Tsukiji, in terms of traffic, anything goes. Men on standup carts drive fast, anywhere, anytime, and I admit there were a couple close calls . We began talking to a FedEx pilot in line for sushi, who was commenting on how “most of the stuff that goes on in Tsukiji is straight outta Hong Kong,” and why he believed it was right to tear the place down.

Vegetables

Condiments

We did stop to have an omelet, which was surprisingly sweet, but it was served with an unforgiving mustard that mellowed the sweetness.

Stalls

Stalls

Vegetables

Wasabi

Peach Bean Paste Thing

Knife Store

Wagyu Beef

After some extensive exploring of the Outer and Inner market, we headed over to Daiwa Sushi.

Daiwa Sushi

At around 5am, we began lining up at Daiwa Sushi (the other big player at Tsukiji is Sushi Dai, but the line was too long. We waited for about half an hour before we were let into the tiny restaurant. Prices weren’t too bad, it was about 3800 yen for both of us, and we ordered about 5-6 items apiece.

Toro

Miso Soup with Clams

Sushi Preparation

Hamachi

The fish and seafood was incredibly fresh, and I’ve never had better uni and eel in my life outside of Japan. Admittedly here the sushi isn’t too artistic, but rather the style is “turn em’ and burn em’” but I appreciated the respect given to the seafood and seafood alone. FWIW, the most tourists we ever saw were in Kyoto and at Tsukiji the whole time we were in Japan, mostly due to the fact that we didn’t stay in Ginza.

Lotte Kaisai Golf

While eating our delectable sushi at Daiwa, I hopped onto Google maps to see if we could go to this driving range today. After all, we were closer to the area than if we were in Shibuya, so I mapped it out. When we came to Japan, we originally wanted to play an actual round of golf (both of us are terrible and I mean terrible golfers, but we thought the experience would be worth doing), but we ruled it out due to cost and weather (duh). Nonetheless, I was determined to find the biggest driving range we could in Tokyo and tee it off. Lotte Kaisai Golf is ENORMOUS with 300 hitting bays and three levels. It wasn’t exactly optimal with a twenty minutes subway ride, but we decided to pull the trigger anyway. We hopped on the Metro, and accidently boarded an express train and missed our stop. At this point it was about 8:30am, so rush hour was hitting. When we got off the train at Kasai Station and saw an army of white-collared salarymen gathering to board the train, we knew we were in trouble. The horror stories are true, and that’s all I have to say on riding the Tokyo Metro pre-9am.

Subway during rush hour

Upon arrival at Nishikasai, I checked the walking route to the driving range, only to discover it was a 1.5km walk in the heat. FWIW, do NOT go to Nishikasai station even if Google maps prompts you, instead go to Kasairinkaikoen, which is a much much shorter walk, even if it requires a transfer. There was also some confusion as where pedestrians enter, and I’m still not sure if we went in the “official” entrance. To the left of the range (facing towards the net) there’s a bicycle entrance, so we entered there and walked through the parking lot. By the time we were inside the air-conditioned (whoot whoot) lobby, both of us were drenched in sweat, which was met by some uncontrollable giggling by the receptionist. They proactively offered for us to try clubs before renting them, and then walked us through how the system worked, in fairly broken English. We were presented with a card, similar to the Pasmo, and from there the receptionist helped us load some yen onto it. There was a 500 yen bay fee for the 1st floor, nonsmoking, and it was about 16 yen per ball (we got 100).

We then walked back outside into the blast furnace and proceeded to walk around completely clueless as to where we would get balls. At each bay there’s a small screen, where the card is read, and where the tee height can be controlled. It also lists how many balls are remaining on the card, and how many have been hit. Upon tapping the card to the terminal, my dreams were answered. The tee disappeared into the ground, and returned with a ball. Yes, an auto-loading driving range. . Needless to say, we both burst into laughter and I went to get drinks as my travel companion teed off.

Driving Range


There were vending machines every other stall or so, and I grabbed a coffee and sparkling water. The 100 balls went faster than either of us had anticipated .

Driving Range

From there, we were craving some lunch, so we got back on the Metro and connected at Tokyo for the Yamanote Line (easier said than done).

Japanese Soba Noodles

Japanese Soba Noodles was raved about, so we decided to check it out. The 12 seat restaurant is a block away from Sugamo station, and the line was out the door. The restaurant is situated next to an apartment building, and there’s a line divider set up down the hallway, so I wonder when the building will start asking for royalties . We were about the 14th in line, and it took an hour to be seated. While the line area is covered, it’s not air conditioned by any means, and it was HOT out that day.

As is the case in all the ramen restaurants we went to, there’s a vending machine right by the door where one orders his ramen and receives a ticket stub, which is presented to the chef. All the options were in congee and there were no pictures so we pointed and asked for the shoyu. One of the cooks rushed over and pointed at two different buttons, but we weren’t able to communicate our question as what the difference was between them. So I blind ordered for both of us and hoped for the best .

Eventually we sat down at the bar and watched as the cooks worked their magic. This is one of the ramen restaurants in Tokyo that has taken the stance of “no additives”, and it shows in the quality of the dish. The shoyu soy is handcrafted and rounds out the broth. We received our bowls of steaming soba noodles, dug in, and as is customary in Japan, slurped with passion. The noodles had such a toothy chew to them, and the broth was so rich and had a depth of flavor like no other. We finished our soups like there was no tomorrow and shouted to the chefs as we left: “Totemo oishi!” Very delicious.

Shoyu Soba

I checked the status of the FedEx package (to decide if we should have picked it up that day), only to see that the delivery was halted due to “incomplete commercial invoice.”

A couple things:
1. Our airport drop off had not filled out the commercial invoice, per the FedEx office’s instructions.
2. This was a personal package, why would they need a commercial invoice? Because it’s being delivered to the Hyatt? I dunno…

Either way, I called up FedEx (chewing into my international calling plan) and started a case with FedEx. We went into the coffee shop and got a soft serve while we worked out our plan for the rest of the day.

Soft Serve

Since the Yamanote line runs in a circle, and we had almost come full circle after leaving our Airbnb at zero-dark-thirty, we decided to do something between Sugamo and Shibuya.

Meiji-jingu

There are several stations that serve Meiji-jingu, including Yoyogi and Harajuku. We took the train to Yoyogi, which was a much shorter walk. The entire shrine is a reconstruction, but it is still a very meaningful and beautiful cultural shrine.

Yoyogi Station Entrance to the Shrine

There are several different paths for getting to the central shrine, and we took one of the more lesser known. Be aware that some of them lead to live roads, which we were not expecting.

As is the case with all the shrines we visited, cleansing yourself before entering is customary.

Shrine

Shrine

There was an area to write and hang prayers, which I took advantage of. Afterwards we both sat down to catch our breath and take it all in.

Shrine

Around 6:30pm, we decided to hop back over to Yoyogi and then back to Shibuya for a quick rest (not like the last night ). We headed back to the ShinQs to try some of the square stuffed bread we saw. My travel companion grabbed a table (a tough feat to accomplish) while I bought the bread. We got the maple, chocolate walnut one. I asked the lovely women behind the counter if they could cut it, which they responded no to. I asked further if they had a knife I could use, and I was met with lots of giggling and “you do not cut the bread!” Ok…. I guess the bread isn’t meant to be cut, although when we ate it at the table with our hands (in the French style), several of the women shopping full out laughed at us. Still not sure how to eat/cut/serve that bread .

Grand Marble Bread

Yakitori

During our regroup at the PH Omotesando (our shoebox Airbnb ), we decided on going back to Tuskiji the next day at 2:45, so we’d be in line for the auction at 3AM. By that point it was about 8, so we figured as long as we’re sleep deprived, we may as well be really sleep deprived ! So we headed to a nondescript yakitori place tucked away in the alleys of Shibuya. We were pointed downstairs to the smoking section, complete with no chairs, short tables, and tatami mats. Nonetheless it was a very “local” experience. The Japanese guy next to us helped us out by recommending a couple things on the menu and catching the waiter’s attention. The food was delicious, from the stuffed roasted peppers, to the yakitori itself and the fried chicken. The taste of the charcoal from the grill was lightly present in every bite. Did not think of taking a photo before the madness, but here’s one of the aftermath

The Aftermath

On the way back to our place, we got lost a couple times (IMO the charm of Tokyo ), but got to explore the many alleyways of Shibuya. We arrived back at our place around 10:30, only to wake up 4 hours later!

Streets of Shibuya

Streets of Shibuya (pardon the image quality)

Next up: Tsukiji Redux and the Shinkansen to Aomori