We spent our first night in our teensy weensy Air Bnb. Don’t get me wrong, we loved it, but it was smaller than any tiny home you’d see on HGTV. The whole bathroom was the shower. Just a spigot on the wall and a drain in the middle of the floor. The toilet was just a regular toilet. Boo!
Seriously, I’m backed up against the wall to take this.
The kitchen/laundry/bathroom.
Off to find breakfast.
We found an American style cafe just steps from our room.
Coffee!!!!
Each morning I ordered this heavenly piece of buttered Japanese toast along with a scoop of egg salad. Turns out it came with the coffee. Thanks!
There was an all night bar on our street. I’m pretty proud that we didn’t have 3:00 am Sake.
Today we will be heading to the Tsukiji Fish Market. I went back and forth about visiting this because a good portion of the operation moved the previous fall. The market has been running since the 1930’s and has two main areas: The inner market where wholesale dealers run auctions and where most of the processing of the fish take place, and the outer market (jōgai-shijō) which is a mixture of wholesale and retail shops that sell Japanese kitchen tools, restaurant supplies, groceries, seafood, with tons of food stalls restaurants, especially sushi. The inner market was proving to be outdated for health and safety so after a lot of wrangling, it was moved to a much more high tech facility. Word is that it’s lost its charms. Not to worry, there was plenty to experience at the outer market.
Dried things.
We got some fresh oysters, straight away.
I have no idea.
Gorgeous knives. Probably not TSA friendly.
Some battered potato wedges. That’s the ticket!
Hey, wait a minute!
This small temple was tucked into the market.
Sliding doors.
You better, watch out, fishies!
Stone lantern.
Something fried, probably the little fishies,
Not a clue.
Okay…
Some very oily mackerel.
What we had next was so awful, I’m strill triggered by the picture. It was eel guts. Eel guts.
The worst thing I’ve ever eaten, hands down.
We needed to find a beer, STAT!
This way!
Aah… sweet Kirin.
I tried to find out what these are called, but all I found was”Japanese Lantern Wall”.
We were ready to try more food. This was bread with red bean paste and a boiled chestnut. Yummy!
I think we’ve seen it all here.
Next we headed over to Shibuya. Our main destination was the famous Shibuya scramble crossing, but first, we had a dog to visit.
Hachikō the dog.
Hidesaburō Ueno was a professor at the Tokyo Imperial University. His dog, Hachikō would meet Ueno at Shibuya Station every day after his commute home. Ueno died suddenly in 1925, but his loyal companion would wait everyday at Shibuya Station for Ueno’s return. To this day Hachiko is honored for his loyalty.
That’s a good boy!
On to Shibuya crossing!
This is known as the world’s busiest crosswalk. Thousands of pedestrians scramble across here everyday. We visited on a weekend so it wasn’t as crazy as it is during the work week, but you get the feel of it. There’s a Starbucks overlooking the crossing that’s a great place to post up. It is also one of the busiest in the world, so be prepared to wait a bit.
We got a window seat to view the action.
I took a time lapse video too. It took me forever to get it uploaded to the blog, so it would make me feel like less of a fool if you watch it.
Another Japanese Lantern Wall
We had an important dinner date to get to.
This part of Shibuya was more like San Francisco with all the hills.
Climbing
You guys, we’re in the wrong spot.
Back down the hill.
Almost there.
We met back up with the kiddos.
So our lunch was at Coco Curry. This is a very popular Japanese curry chain, hence heading to the wrong location earlier. There’s quite a few of them.
The menu book. I had a primer on how to order from the Youtubes.
Kirin, as usual.
The main deal here is the Katsu or fried pork ,accompanied by a deep, rich, spicy brown curry. You can choose the heat level. I chose the slightly runny nose level.
The food was simply amazing! We enjoyed hanging out with the kids again and hearing about their adventures in Kyoto. We wouldn’t see the whole gang again until we met at the airport. We’ll see Meghan ans Evan a bit later.
The walk from the train to our neighborhood.
The line-up for the Jongno (cheese sticks) was massive.
Post-nap and look! The line is still as long! Why?
Our little neighborhood street was packed tight enough…
Then a car tries to pass!
A nice view from a foot bridge.
We made our way back to the Shibuya area to nearby Ginza. This is a more of a high end shopping destination.
These purses are a gazllion yen. You can work out the exchange rate yourself.
We had plans to meet up at this high end Whiskey Bar in Ginza.
It was adjacent to this lovely church courtyard.
Beautiful lighting.
They weren’t kidding about the whiskey. Oy vey!
We weren’t able to get seated with the kids so we just smiled and waved across the room. The hostess frowned upon me squatting next to their table.
We got a couple gorgeous, American sized Manhattens.
This place was exquisite!
See the host climbing the Library style ladder!?
Jeff ordered us two drams of this Japanese Whisky. It cast somewhere around one of those fancy purses.
Heading back to Shinjuku.
We were feeling a bit peckish and happened upon an Izakaya that I wanted to check out, Torikizoku. Like Coco Curry, this is also a chain. There are several hundred of these across Japan. It’s known for cheap Yakitori. Sounds good to me!
This bar has the ordering system right at the table!
Beer!
My ordering started out poor. I manged to choose more guts!
Chicken Livers. AAAGH!
Yay! Finally some chicken.
Chicken skins. Amazing!
With our bellies full, we ambled back to our cozy home.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Tokyo! We’ll get Lost in Translation !