Monday, January 14, 2013

Day 14- Culinary Journey

It is our first full day in Japan, and let me tell you- it made up for our awful day yesterday. We had the best culinary journey today.

We woke up bright and early and headed to one of our most anticipated stops of the trip- tsukiji fish market! For those of you who know Eric and I well, you would know that we love sushi and is one thing we have deep interest for. So you can only imagine how excited we were to take a train from Ebisu station to the Tsukijo station on the Hibya line to go to this fish market!

When getting off the train, we quickly spotted a ramen shop. What is interesting about Japan is all the vending machines they have to sell anything and everything! So of course, we ordered some ramen from the vending machine for our breakfast- yum!

After scarfing down some ramen, we were eager for some sushi. We walked 10 minutes to the fish market and were surprised by all the shops and different seafood all around us!

There sushi shops after sushi shops and we really didn't know which one to go to. We decided to turn a random corner and go to one that was offering three different kids of toro- toro, Chu-toro and O-toro! Mmmmm

After our quick snack, we explored some more and quickly realized how rich the Japanese are. Things here are very expensive (as if we didn't figure that our from yesterday's cab ride) and just simple household items were insanely priced!

As we walked around the fish market, getting ready to leave, we came upon the highlight of our morning. A restaurant had recently just purchased a huge tuna from the market and was showing it off to all the locals! They cut the entire tuna (that took 5 men to carry) and showed off the beautiful flesh! The locals were cheering in excitement and congratulating the restaurant chefs on their new prize. Yes, fish are prized here.



It didn't take long for us to decide that we had to eat at this sushi restaurant- so off we went!

What was the best part? We got to eat the tuna that they were showing off to the locals! They cut the fish in front of the crowd and just handed it to the sushi chefs inside. They had the freah fish on the counter and just sliced off some pieces of it for our nigiri. I don't think you can get fresher than that.



The sushi was absolutely indescribable. The regular toro was better than any o-toro I've had in the US. The Chu toro was so divine and pure. And then when we got to the o toro, we really didn't know what to say, except that we NOW finally understand what melt in your mouth means. Heck, it melted in our hands!





After this great start to the day, we got back on the Hibiya line and went to the Imperial Palace.

The bonsai trees in the surrounding the garden was beautiful and the palace itself was so majestic. I wish I could live there!

After our trip to the Imperial Palace, it was time to head to the bustling city! We took the JR line to Shibuya first and walked around this busy city. Boy is Japan crowded!

We saw some cool plinko looking machines in a parlor.. But we weren't really sure how to play, so we just watched! I wonder what they were doing....

We walked around town and stopped at another arcade parlor. We still had no clue what people were doing but we decided to join in this time. When it Tokyo! We lost all our coins pretty quickly since we were completely clueless. :(

Then it was time for a new town, Shinjuku! Shinjuku, although only a few train stops away was completely different. Shibuya was more like Times Square while Shinjuku was more like.... Penn Station- a lot more quieter with business buildings all around.

We got the best dinner at Shinjuku! Eric commented how he's always wanted to do Shabu Shabu in Japan, so we searched for a good place, and oh, we found it. Yes that is the best wagyu Kobe beef you have probably ever laid your eyes on... Look at that marbling!

After our amazing dinner, we walked around, stopped at a Belgium bar (yes, this was Eric's idea) and decided to call it a night. After all, we are heading to Hakone bright and early tomorrow!

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