DAY 10

I was so excited to finally make it to this day in our trip since we both LOVE fishing!!

Two of our friends took us to Okutama for a day of trout fishing. The weather report said it was supposed to be really cold there so our friends’ wives decided not to make the trek. But luckily when we got there it was really sunny and not too cold.

Above was one of the trains we rode to get to Okutama.

At one of the stations when we needed to transfer, we had a nice breakfast of inari and makizushi.

After a comfortable and scenic ride, we finally made it to Okutama Station.

From here we had to walk about 10 - 15 minutes to the fishing grounds.

The cost was about $30 a person and it came with fishing tackle and bait. There were different types of pricing but I’m not sure what they were for since the signs were all in kanji. This is one place we wouldn’t have been able to go to on our own for the first time without our friends. But now that we know how to get there and what we want, hopefully we’d be able to get there again!

The four of us all caught a bunch of trout. It was easier than usual since as part of the price, they stock your area with fish right as your start fishing.

At lunch time we took our trout up to the kitchen where they cook it up for you.

If you don’t catch anything, or if you want to supplement your trout lunch, they also have some menu items like ramen, soba, and curry. We just ordered some onigiri since our friend also brought side dishes like tomatoes, tsukemono, and strawberries.

By lunch time we had caught at least eight trout so we each had two for lunch.

After lunch we went out for another hour or so of fishing and caught another bunch of fish that our friends took home for dinner. This really was our favorite day in Tokyo!

DAY 9

On day 9 of our Tokyo trip we decided to go on a day trip up to Nikko!

Our friends made the train reservations and also picked up musubis, maki zushi, and sakura mochi for breakfast!

After a leisurely ride to the north, we got off at Tobu Nikko Station.

Right outside we were greeted by a doggy, not sure if he was saying “hellooooo!” or “whooo are yoooou?!”

Since we were only there for about half a day, we quickly started the walk up toward the shrine area.

Right around this bridge we saw a lot of tourists also making the trek up to the shrine area.

But then for some reason, the route we went on was very peaceful and serene. We didn’t pass even one person the whole way up to the shrine area.

When we started to see roofs like these, we knew we were getting close!

Then finally we were back among the crowds of people all checking out the - hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil monkeys…

as well as all of the other beautiful art and architecture.

Getting to the top of the Toshogu Shrine was quite a walk, but it really was a sight to see along the way. The shrine is made up of 55 main structures that cover 80,000 sq. meters. Needless to say we were a little winded at the end of the walk but thankfully our friends were prepared and offered us some Aomori apple juice!

After a quick break we headed back down to the town area that we came from that morning.

In the morning when we were walking up to the shrine area, our friend had been checking out the menus of all the restaurants along the street. He wanted to take us to a yuba restaurant and was looking out for the best bargain.

Yuba is basically a very thin film that forms on the top of soy milk when in the process of making tofu. It’s very delicate and if you like tofu, you may enjoy yuba as well!

There were tons of restaurants specializing in yuba set meals in Nikko. Because there were many vegetarian Buddhist priests in Nikko at one time, yuba became a local food of the area. And until this day, it is still very easy to find delicious vegetarian meals up and down this street!

We decided on a place called Sun Field that had a 1600 yen yuba lunch set.

Some of the items in the lunch set included yuba cooked in shoyu and ginger, deep fried yuba with miso, shoyu yuba soup, sesame tofu, deep fried yuba in shoyu sugar sauce, and coffee jelly with yuba.

We all really enjoyed this yuba lunch and would definitely recommend Sun Field restaurant to others!

DAY 8

We started out Day 8 by catching the Yamanote line to Ueno station where we met our friend.

Before our trip, all of the weather forecasts said that the sakura would be in full bloom during our time in Tokyo. However, just before we arrived, cold weather descended upon Tokyo and lasted for most of our time in Japan.

We didn’t mind too much because we actually prefer cooler weather and had just seen the sakura last year. But it was still nice to see some of the earlier blooming flowers out at Ueno Park.

After our stroll through Ueno, we leisurely made our way toward Yanaka Ginza.

Yanaka Ginza is a small shopping area reminicent of old Japan.

At the beginning of the shopping street we had a snack of kinako dango.

It’s really fun to check out the products in all of the small little shops along the way.

Towards the end of the street we stopped for a snack of tempura.

I had one of my favorites…nasu or eggplant tempura.

After picking up some souvenirs, we caught a bus back to Ueno where we picked up lunch from the basement of Matsuzakaya Department Store.

We brought our lunch to eat in front of the pond back on the other side of Ueno Park.

We had potato croquettes and onigiri.

This ikura onigiri with shiso was the best onigiri I have ever had in my life!!

After lunch we caught another train to Sengakuji Temple. If you are familiar with the 47 Ronin story, this is the temple where they are buried.

The 47 ronin, lord Asano and Kira are all buried in Sengaku-ji.

And finally we ended our day with a look around the Ebisu area of Tokyo.

While Ebisu is a very nice and modern area for shopping and strolling, the main reason we were there was the Yebisu Beer Museum!

And the highlight of the museum for my other half? The 500 yen beer sampler…

DAY 7

We slept in a little on this morning since all we had was a 1:00pm baseball game to catch at the Tokyo Dome. Normally we aren’t big baseball fans, but we really wanted to see a Japanese baseball game because we had heard about how different they were!

Before we left, we had some of our pastries that we picked up from Ginza the day before.

After a quick train ride we got off at Korakuen station. We made our way along with the crowd to the Tokyo Dome, bought a couple things at the souvenir shop, then found our gate into the Dome.

The game that we saw was the Yomiuri Giants vs. Chiba Lotte Marines. We had good seats, very comfortable and not too crowded since it was a preseason game. But even though it was preseason the Yomiuri Giants fans were all decked out. A little boy in front of me had a Yomiuri jersey, towel, hat, and puppet!

As you may have heard, the baseball fans here in Japan are very hard core. They have songs and chants and their own music sections. Here are the Yomiuri Giants fans…

And here are the Chiba Lotte Marines fans…

We were here to cheer on Hawaii local boy Benny Agbayani and the Marines. But since we were sitting in a sea of Giants fans…we just quietly cheered him on.

Inside the Tokyo Dome we wanted to try out some of their food so we picked up some snacks. We shared some yakisoba,

and a bento.

It was kind of pricey as most stadium food is, but it really hit the spot!

We were really glad to see Benny starting for the Chiba Lotte Marines…

And he did well getting on base several times.

However, the Giants wound up winning in the end.

After our unique Japanese baseball experience, we went to the nearby area of Ochanomizu to check out the music instrument district again. While there we had some cheap sushi for dinner!

With our stomachs full, we leisurely caught the train back to our hotel and rested up for our next exciting day in Tokyo!

DAY 6 - continued…

After a morning in Tsukiji, Ginza, and Akihabara, we met up with more friends in the cooking supply district of Kappabashi.

We bought a bunch of fun bowls and other kitchen accessories. But my favorite purchase…probably of the whole trip was this Japanese style vegetable knife. I use it almost everyday now and love it!

After shopping the six of us went for lunch in the area. The restaurant was inside of an office type building, not somewhere we would’ve gone on our own.

But it was a great choice, the chef made fresh handmade soba while we waited.

The warm dipping sauce with vegetables…

After our late lunch, we walked over to Asakusa to browse around until it was time for dinner. Eat…shop…eat…shop, my kind of vacation!

Next we made our way along the Sumida-gawa River…

To get to our dinner destination we had to cross over the Sumida-gawa on Sakura Bashi (bridge).

Along the way, our friend (the one who had been showing us around this whole time) showed us some of the roads he designed back when he was an engineer. I thought this one below was really cool. It’s supposed to be pictures of boats on the Sumida River with fireworks overhead!

The Japan National Tourism Organization says that in Asakusa, “the most popular event is the fireworks display along the Sumida-gawa River in summer, which over one million people gather to watch.”

Here is an aerial view of his road showing a better view of the boats and fireworks.

After walking down a few more streets…

we finally made it to our okonomiyaki/monjayaki restaurant called Ha Chan. There are some areas in Tokyo that are more famous for monjayaki (Tsukishima), but we chose this place because our friend is in a singing club with Ha chan.

Here is the menu that was on the wall.

First we had some appetizers…

Enoki Mushrooms

grilled with butter and shoyu…

along with oysters and Japanese onions.

Then came some okonomiyaki. Ha chan helped us mix and grill it.

Next we had some grilled potatoes with shoyu. I thought this was going to be plain, but it was actually really good!

Then we had some monjayaki. The first one was a negi monjayaki.

After mixing everything in the bowl, you scoop out the big pieces on to the grill. Then you form a circle with the ingredients and pour the liquid into the middle.

This negi monjayaki was really good. I didn’t expect to like monjayaki at all. Back home I had heard about and seen monjayaki. And in all the pictures I had seen, it pretty much looked like…well you can see from these pictures. But like others I found out looks can be very deceiving. I think I now like monjayaki better than okonomiyaki!

At this point I thought we were done with dinner but yet another bowl came out. This one was kimchi monjayaki. Also very delicious!

We were playing around seeing who could scrape and scoop the monjayaki the best. There is a whole technique to it that they taught us. You have a little spatula and scrape under the edge of it. Then you come over from the top side and push down while pulling a piece away. Here is one of my best scoops!

To finish off the evening we had something that was like a pancake with sweet beans inside for dessert.

This was a really fun dinner! For those of you hesitant like I was because of the looks of monjayaki, consider giving it a try at least once. I’m so glad I did!

DAY 6

Do you remember the night when we had that awesome dinner at our friend’s restaurant in Asakusa? On this morning, that restaurant owner friend took us shopping with him at Tsukiji Market!

It’s a pretty daunting place. Luckily we didn’t get run over by any of those mini trucks. We just had to make sure we didn’t lose sight of him as he made his rounds.

Checking out the merchandise…

If he saw a vendor he knew, I’d get to come over and take a closer look…

We both love fishing so visiting Tsukiji was really fun for us. It’s just rows and rows of fresh fish and seafood…

Aren’t you getting hungry looking at all this fish? We were, so the four of us went out and around the corner for some breakfast.

Here is what we had…

Sushi set

This one below wasn’t on the menu but we asked if they could make it…Ikura Uni Don

Another Sushi set

And a Chiraishi bowl

After breakfast our chef friend headed off to do more fish shopping in another area of town. The three of us leisurely browsed the Tsukiji outside market.

There was a lot of produce, prepared foods, and products like knives and chef apparel.

When we were done, we slowly made our way toward Ginza. On the way we walked by the Kabuki-za Theatre. It’s a beautiful building. Too bad, our friend told us it will be demolished in 2010 in favor of a new more modern building.

After checking out a couple of small shops in Ginza, we made our way to Mitsukoshi just as it opened for the day.

We picked up a variety of pastry snacks,

and walked around checking out everything else on the basement floor.

After Ginza we headed for the electronics district of Akihabara. We were looking for a couple of things like noise canceling headphones and a navigation device, but didn’t see one at a price we wanted so we mostly just browsed around the stores until it was time to meet more of our friends at Kappabashi Dori.

DAY 5

Japanese roll cake…breakfast of champions! Well not really, but this was my breakfast. I had bought it at Family Mart the night before for dessert and finished it up for breakfast this morning. I have to say, for convenience store roll cake, this was very good - super soft and moist!

Day 5 was a little different in that this was our first day on our own in Tokyo. Our biggest apprehensions were finding our way in the train stations and finding our way back to train stations. But we brought our map (and even a little compass!) and were determined to do our best.

First up was the Toyota Amlux showroom located inside Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. It’s free admission and about 4 or 5 stories high.

There were all kinds of interesting cars to check out…

But the most fun part was getting into these test cars and taking a virtual test drive. The whole thing moves up and down and side to side so it’s pretty fun!

If you are in the Sunshine City area, drop in. You can’t beat free!

After Toyota we went to one of the department stores at Ikebukuro station. It was either Seibu or Tobu, I can’t remember which one but boy is it hard to walk by all the food in their basement and resist the temptation!

After checking out the desserts we went back out into the main station area to make our way to Shinjuku.

In Shinjuku, the first thing we wanted to do was go to another free attraction - the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. There were many signs in Shinjuku station so it was easy to find the correct station exit.

Then using our map we just continued on down the main street. Once we got near the building there were more signs around with arrows pointing you in the direction of the Observatory (our destination) so we just followed the arrows.

It was pretty slow when we got there which was good, no line for the elevator. We quickly went straight up to the 45th floor to take a look around. It was a little cloudy that day so there was no view of Mt. Fuji. However, this is what we did see…

While we were up at the observatory we decided to have lunch at the cafe there. They had 3 different lunch specials. We were both going to get the tomato pasta…

but when I saw the special called “Loco Moco Hamburg Style Plate”, I had to give this Tokyo loco moco a try!

The gravy was a little different, more of a demi-glace sauce with mushrooms. But I liked the idea of the poached egg. That was different compared to Hawaii’s standard over easy or sunny side up fried egg.

After lunch we headed to Takashimaya Times Square to do some shopping. I spent a bunch of time in my new favorite store, Kinokuniya. I

After Shinjuku we headed to Ochanomizu to check out the music instrument district. There were tons of guitars in this area near Akihabara.

There were also many other string, woodwind, and brass instruments. We spent a lot of time in a big store called Shimokura.

Walking around the area, we saw many girls in kimonos. The reason is because we were there during graduation time. These girls were just coming out from their graduation ceremony.

To end this day we caught the subway back toward the Yamanote line and headed to a department store to have some soba for dinner. When I saw the unagi soba combo I couldn’t resist!

My hubby was good and had the tempura and soba combo. They were very nice about making it all vegetable tempura for us.

Coming up in the next post? Tsukiji, Okonomiyaki, Monja, and more!

DAY 4

On Day 4 we picked up a quick snack at the bakery about 30 seconds from our hotel…

and headed down to the train station.

We met our friend on the Yamanote platform and headed to Shinjuku and from there on to Mitaka station.

We are fans of Studio Ghibli movies such as Spirited Away so we thought we’d check out the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

For those interested in visiting when in Tokyo, please be sure to check out the museum’s website. Tickets usually have to be purchased well ahead of time either in your home country or in Japan. In our case our friends picked up tickets for us from Lawson’s in Tokyo about a month before our arrival.

Once you arrive at Mitaka station you can either catch a bus to the museum or take a 15 minute walk like we did.

There are Ghibli signs down the road so that you know you’re headed in the right direction. And there are also pretty flowers on the trees if you are there at the right time…

Sad to say there is no photography allowed in the museum. And from what I read on other blogs, they are pretty strict about it so I didn’t even try. Instead I’ll just say that if you are a fan of Hayao Miyazaki, this is a fun place to check out!

After the museum we headed back to Mitaka station and ate at a tonkatsu restaurant. My other half had the potato croquette while our friend and I had the tonkatsu.

I have to say…it was worth it to fall off the vegetarian wagon! Especially with the ground sesame seeds and tonkatsu sauce that I later drizzled over the crispy pork and cabbage - yum!!

After lunch we caught the train to Shimbashi where we boarded Yurikamome, unusual as it is a fully automated transit system controlled solely by computers.

It was kind of a cloudy day but there were still nice sights to see along the way…

We got off to check out Tokyo Big Sight then got back on for a quick walk around the Odaiba area…

After doing a little bit of shopping we caught a boat to Hinode pier and another boat to go up the Sumida river.

As the boat pulled out, two of us stayed up on the boat’s roof to get a better view.

We were also able to see some yurikamome up close. The train we rode earlier to get to this area is named after this bird.

Getting off the boat in Asakusa, we took a stroll around before dinner time.

It was fairly crowded as usual with pretty much the same shops and food offerings as last year.

However, one thing that I remembered seeing last year that I hadn’t tried yet was this fried snack.

It seemed to be the most crowded food stall offering several different flavor options. We went with the traditional sweet azuki bean paste.

By this time it was getting a little late so we made the walk across the Sumida gawa toward our dinner destination…Kazusa-ya.

Last year through our Tokyo friends we became friends with another group of Tokyoites. A bunch of them came to visit Hawaii last summer and we met several times for food and good times.

One of our new friends is a restaurant owner from Tokyo who sent me a very nice gift last October. He also said that when we were in Tokyo again, we were to come by his restaurant for dinner. So here we were at his restaurant in Asakusa…Kazusa-ya.

Almost the whole group that we had met last summer was there taking up pretty much the whole downstairs area of this cozy restaurant.

There was quite an enormous spread laid out for us! And after a toast to start things off…

We had a variety of appetizers.

And two pots of a super huge nabe!

This nabe had so many ingredients, I don’t think I can remember them all…but I’ll try: There was cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, seaweed, kamaboko, daikon, carrots - some other vegetables that I can’t remember right now - shrimp, scallops, octopus, clams, salmon, and crab legs!

The sashimi platter was also enormous…and we also had two of these platters for our group. It included saba, maguro, ebi, hamachi, abalone, ika, scallops, and much more that I also can’t remember. But believe me, it was every bit as delicious as it looks!

When we thought it was over, more food still came out of the kitchen. This time, two plates of tamagoyaki.

And finally when we were filled to the gills with food, a very delicous dish came out. This was the rib portion of a tuna fish.

It was prepared in a teriyaki type miso marinade. And each of us got our own huge piece!

It was so buttery and delicious!

The highlight of this day? Definitely…definitely Kazusaya. It was like an all you can eat nabe and sashimi dinner with awesome side dishes and company!

DAY 3

When our Tokyo friends were in Hawaii they asked, “What do you want to do in Japan?” I replied, “Eat, shop, and play in the snow!” So today they were fulfilling my third wish of playing in some Japan snow!

They took us to Mount Asama, the most active volcano on Honshu Island as well as the lovely nearby resort town of Karuizawa. The area is over 100 km from downtown Tokyo, quite a distance to drive.

It must have taken close to two hours to get there by car.

We stopped once for brunch at a rest stop. We had some onigiri, melon pan, and these takenoko inari that I really liked!

When we finally arrived at the Mount Asama area, we stopped in this parking lot to take a stretch and walk around.

Then we drove around a little more getting different views. It was a really pretty area…

After we had our fill of snow, a quick little snowball fight, and saw this…

we figured it was time to move on.

On our way to Karuizawa we stopped off to see Shiraito Waterfall. It’s just a very easy 5 minute walk to reach the falls.

However, if you are like me and stop every ten seconds to take a picture, it’ll take you more like 15 minutes to reach the top. But really, how can you not stop to enjoy these mini falls along the way?

At the end of the path is the very graceful Shiraito Waterfall. It stands 3 meters high and 70 meters wide, with its water coming from the rain that falls on Mount Asama. Once the rain falls on the mountain, they say it takes 6 years for the water to seep underground and reach the top of the waterfall.

After a leisurely walk back to the car, we headed off to Karuizawa. During this time of year, Karuizawa is a small ski resort type town. But since we don’t ski, we concentrated our time on the historic shopping street in town.

On this street there are many little shops selling clothes, trinkets, and best of all…food!

Along the way our friend asked me, “Do you like sweet potato?”
“Sure!”, I said with a nod. Ten seconds later she handed me this…

a piping hot baked sweet potato! We were starting to get a little hungry, so this was a good treat. We split it into four pieces and shared.

Also on this street were dogs…everywhere. With many of them wearing the latest in doggy fashion. This lucky group got to ride around in a little stroller!

As I was saying, there were many stores that sold food. And the good ones always served lots of samples to try!

Our friends bought a ton of tsukemono to bring back to Tokyo. We bought some but didn’t want to go over board. However, now that we are home I wish we had gotten more!

For lunch we went to a discreet little soba shop that was recommended to us by one of the tsukemono shop owners. The two guys tried the special cold soba that was locally made.

Have you ever seen anything like this below?

Our other friend ordered it. It’s the same flour used to make the soba noodles but made into dumplings. It was served in a warm broth just like my hot soba.

My order was a warm mushroom soba with wasabi and lots of grated daikon - Oishii!

After lunch we finished up at the shopping street and went to quickly visit the ski slope and adjoining outlet shopping mall, before setting off for the long ride back to Tokyo ending a very fun day.

Back in Tokyo after a short rest, we decided to head to the department store at the train station for dinner. There were so many choices, about 3 floors worth of restaurants to choose from! Eventually we chose one with some delicious looking samples outside. He had the Tendon with all vegetable tempura.

While I had the teishoku with miso soup, chawanmushi, tempura…

and sashimi!

The area of Japan we went to on this day was very beautiful. We were lucky that the weather was so nice all day! It was also enjoyable because the town was not too crowded. At the visitor center I picked up some brochures that showed that same shopping street completely packed with people during the summer season. So if you aren’t in to big crowds, try Karuizawa during spring!

DAY 1

As soon as we came back from Japan last year, we knew we had to return again soon! And so, one year later, we landed at Narita airport.

From the airport we went by bus to our hotel arriving at about 7:30pm. By the time we were all set with our room and cleaned up from the long flight from Hawaii, it was pretty late. Luckily our Tokyo friends had surprised us at the airport with dinner to take to the hotel!

They gave us a roll of shiitake makizushi, some inari zushi, and vegetable miso soup to enjoy in our room that night.

If you didn’t read the previous post, I should mention that we’ve been eating mostly vegetarian these days. Not 100%, but maybe about 90% when we are home in Hawaii. On this trip to Japan though, it was more like 70% (there was no way I was not going to eat sushi, sashimi, and my other favorites!) But on most days, we did try to find vegetarian friendly Japanese meals.

Back to the photo above, our friends being so considerate surprised us with this sushi roll of shiitake mushroom, kanpyo, and cucumbers - it was so delicious!

DAY 2

On this first real day in Japan, we met our Tokyo friends at 10:00am and headed down to the train station. We hopped on the Yamanote Line to Harajuku (which was fairly empty at this hour) to start out our first full day.

From Harajuku Station…

We made the quick walk over to the famous Meiji Jingu shrine.

Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

It is an easy shaded walk to get to this shrine and a very peaceful place to visit in the middle of hectic Tokyo.

After taking our time at Meiji Jingu, we went back out to the busy Harajuku area of Takeshita Dori!

I had to do a double take when I saw that mannequin below!

Along the way we stopped at Daiso, the huge 100 Yen store - and also for a snack of Marion Crepes!

Here is a glimpse of their menu.

We shared number 72, the Apple Custard Crepe. Very light and delicious!

After Takeshita Dori we made our way down to the Omotesando area. We leisurely walked along the pricey shops like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, up the slight hill to the end near Omotesando Station.

We stopped near the end for some lunch at Osteria Mara Nello. It was a cute little Italian restaurant that served a lunch special of salad and mushroom pasta that was perfect for us.

By this time we were a little tired from walking so we took the Ginza subway line to Shibuya, the last area we wanted to visit for the day.

Outside of Shibuya Station we visited the Hachiko statue. This is the statue of the dog that after his master died, waited for years at the exit of the station for him to return. So sad yeah?

Right across from the Hachiko statue was this billboard for Soft Bank.

It really reminded us of our dog Rocky waiting at home in Hawaii.

In Shibuya it was a little busy, but not too bad.

We went there mostly to do some shopping at Tokyu Hands and Tower Records.

A little heavier with shopping bags, we made our way back with our friends to Ikebukuro for a simple soba dinner at Sunshine City.

In addition to these bowls, we also had a variety of tsukemono and some tempura.

After dinner we could have gone out again that evening. But since we had to get up really early the next day, we decided to grab some snacks from Family Mart and head up to our room for some Japanese TV!

Stay tuned for Day 3…