The tour of Japan Airlines' Sky Museum and Maintenance Center ended at one-thirty in the afternoon, so I made my way back to central Tokyo. I had read online about a tamagoyaki vendor at Tsukiji's outer market that I wanted to visit, so I headed onto the monorail and changed at Hamamatsucho/Daimon for Tsukiji Shijo.


Above ground transfer from Hamamatsucho to Daimon with Tokyo Tower off in the distance

It was actually my first visit to Tsukiji since December 2010, when I had a four hour layover at Haneda early in the morning on my way to Taipei Songshan. I have been back to Tokyo many times but heading down to Tsukiji never really appealed to me, no matter how jet lagged I may have been. I headed over to Shouro's stand to purchase some tamagoyaki to consume later. I would've walked around more but due to the late hour, a lot of the vendors were already closing up for the day.


Tamagoyaki from Shouro, which I ate in my hotel room later in the day. It was... alright.


Tuskiji Outer Market


Fish delivered directly to a happy bear


Passing by the Tsukiji Honganji Buddist temple on my way to the Tsukiji Tokyo Metro Station

My next two stops were also places I had previously read about online and researched. Due to the fact that I was staying east of the Sumida River, I continued to explore that area. I took the Hibiya Line and then transferred to the Sobu Main Line and alighted at Kameido, where my destination was Kameido Gyoza. Kameido Gyoza is a small restaurant specialising in Gyoza (duh). In fact, that's the only food they serve and they only have one type of gyoza, so it's not some new fangled thing with weird flavours or whatever. The gyoza come five per plate and can only be ordered by the plate. Once they see that you are about to finish your plate, they bring you a new plate unless you tell them to stop. In a way, it's similar to those Brazilian steakhouses where they keep bringing you food until you indicate otherwise.


Kameido Gyoza


Plate number three. They consolidate your remaining gyoza to the new plate

I really enjoyed Kameido Gyoza and had four plates of gyoza along with a beer. I thought I had eaten a lot but glanced across the counter at an older woman who had eight plates and then felt shame.

Since I ate so much, I walked back to the hotel with a stop at Kameido Tenjinsha, a shrine known for its views of Tokyo Skytree.


Alleys north of Kameido Station


Shopping street torii


Main torii of Kameido Tenjinsha


Skytree in the distance


Honden


Mitake Jinja


Ox shrine


Skytree and residential tower blocks


Not far from the Skytree

After resting in my room for a few hours, I then headed out to the Tokyo Solamachi shopping centre at the base of the Skytree to do some shopping. I bought some clothes and shoes for myself, some small gifts for the family and some edible omiyage for my co-workers. When I went back to the room to pack, my bag barely fit all that I bought on this trip.


Bought some Rilakkuma stuff for the little one


Korilakkuma, Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori with the Skytree

After packing, it was up to the hotel's rooftop deck for a few snaps before heading out for one last dinner in Japan.


Rooftop terrace


Viewing in a southwesterly direction


Skytree from the rooftop terrace

In past trips to Japan, my dining selections were all sort of on a whim or even just from the convenience stores or a local fast food chain. On this trip, I put some effort into finding good dining spots so on this last night, I found an izakaya that was well rated on Tabelog, Motsuyaki Inagaki, which specialised in Motsuyaki. Motsuyaki refers to a style of food that focuses on skewers using the innards of animals.

I was seated at the bar and somewhat to my displeasure, I was brought an English menu once the staff figured out that my Japanese was limited as I usually try to do my best with the Japanese menu.


Tsukune (ground chicken meatballs)


Chicken, liver, etc.


Chicken wings


Chicken skin and negima (chicken thigh with spring onions)


Tuna sashimi

Being seated at the bar, it was an option for me to order more food from the folks who were doing the grilling at the other side of the bar. I tried getting their attention with sumimasen (excuse me) but one of the gentlemen didn't hear me. A gentleman sitting next to me starts talking to me and I deduced that he meant something along the lines of "you'll have to speak up" but I, of course, had to respond to him that I was sorry and that my Japanese wasn't great. It turned out that he and his friend both spoke English and so the three of us started chatting for the rest of our stay at the restaurant. We shared drinks and conversed in a mixture of Japanese and English. They ended up paying for my dinner, which was way too generous and invited me out for drinks with the two of them. The three of us got in a cab and headed over to Hoppy Street, a street in Asakusa that is lined with bars and eating establishments. However, Hoppy Street was already closed for the night so we ended up drinking at an outpost of Isomaru Suisan, a twenty-four hour seafood place. Thankfully, I was able to somewhat pay them back by covering the tab and a few snacks that we had at Isomaru Suisan.

It was a really great experience chatting to them about their lives in Japan, my life in the United States and pop culture interests that we had in common. It was amusing to me that they were more interested in our culture in the States and I was more interested in their culture in Japan. After we were finally done drinking for the night, we parted ways after exchanging contact information on the LINE messaging app


Starting the walk back to the hotel after a great night


Passing by Kaminarimon one last time


Crossing Azumabashi on foot