3 – 2 – 1 – LIFT OFF!
Why not end this year’s shopping where we have started it?
Me and Ritsu went to Fuchu for some last-of-the-year shopping and to find this nice Ramen place again where we ate on 2/1/09. The place looked pretty much the same, but we think they installed a new lamp with their logo on it, which made us wonder in the beginning if we are at the right place.
Once again, it was very tasty, this time I took only the one-alarm version (as this place charges 50Y for every step up) with seasoned egg.
And let me just roll this into the same post (we have already enough food related posts): Last night we went to have Korean BBQ again. Not the same place as usual, but it belongs to the same chain (Kyu Gaku).
Very tasty meat again and not that much of a fire hazard (probably because Ritsu’s dad had taken over the reigns as the BBQ master)
After our nice lunch, while I was exploring the stores in Ikihabara, Ritsu and Utako took Julius to the aquarium.
Here are some pictures (soon) and video. Maybe Ritsu will add some text later, but looks like Julius had a great time.
 |
There are still so many things in terms of food for me to discover. I don’t think I ever had kushiage (aka “fried things on sticks”) before.
Definitely not in such a nice, old, authentic building. Based on our friend Utako’s recommendation we met with her again and went to this restaurant Hantei, which specializes in this western Japanese cuisine of deep fried skewers in a lovely setting. It seems though the downstairs tables are more popular than the upstairs sit-on-the-floor tatami set ups. (There is a nice description in English on their website, only trick is to click the icon on the left of the picture to scroll through the whole thing) |
It started with a small duck meat appetizer, then our first round of skewers came. I can’t recall all (or was not even able to identify them), but it was all lovely, in total we got 8 per person. In between we got another small appetizer, something eggy with crab meat. We also had a big bowl of perfectly cut raw veggies which were delicious with their miso dip (which you can order a second helping of for 150Y, I was tempted to ask if they sell it by the jar)
Julius loved the carrot sticks and later played a lot with the discarded bamboo skewers (i.e. creating letters or building abstract shapes) or just kept kissing Utako.
The lunch set menu is finished with either rice with pickles and miso soup, or rice with seaweed and tea to pour over. And then there is a little scoop of ice cream.
Overall a great lunch experience, albeit a bit on the pricy side at about 40 – 50$ p.p. (depending on how much beer you need with this).
They have a second location close to Tokyo Station which seems to be a bit cheaper, but then you probably don’t get this nice setting.
Enjoy the pictures below:
Today we met with our long time friend Utako (who we had just seen when she visited us in Italy) and we had a very nice stroll through Ueno park.
Julius discovered big fishies and lots of birds.
One of my favourite Japanese winter dishes is buta no kakuni, which on occasion we had tried to make ourselves, but getting these nice pieces of pork belly is not easy.
So I was very happy when Ritsu pointed out a local place which specializes on pork and advertises that they only have 10 portions of buta no kakuni for each lunch. Luckily, one of them had my name on it. It was delicious!
When we are not out exploring or at the playground or Julius is spreading his arts & crafts chaos all over the place, he enjoys very much watching TV with ojichan:
Everytime I am here (an this marks the 8th time within 9 years) I find a bunch of fun things that makes my mind run circles and I just have to share … let’s start with:
What has Paris Hilton done to Japanese teenage girls?
Last year in Tokyo I saw a group of teenage girls on the train going gaga over a Paris Hilton idol book …
And yesterday I probably saw what has become of them: Total scanks! Dressed like top $ escorts, malnutritioned with legs so thin, they looked like they could easily break once they trip with in those high heels they were barely able to maneuver. Wearing big, dark glasses to hide the last thing that would tell that they are actually Japanese, their eyes.
At least they had very good teeth.
Feel Wood
 |
Seriously?
I am somewhat at a loss about this one … I was still hoping they tried to go with ‘Feel Good’ .. but G and W are not really close on the keyboard … |
Smoking Love Story
Only here could someone come up with the image of a guy humping a cigarette …
how does this translate to female smokers?
Self explanatory detergents
Not much do add really (maybe some water)
Subway snooze fest
You see people nodding of on the train a lot here … but I have rarely seen it like this:
But I keep being amazed about people on trains here are able to nod off, often on a complete stranger’s shoulder … but they don’t miss their stop.
Spam Sushi
I always knew there are tons of ways of using spam canned meat … but as sushi ???
This was the first time for Julius to experience the incredible hustle and bustle in Shibuya … we had a lunch date with Ritsu’s long time friend Mariko (who I last met at our engagement party in New York, like 8 years ago)
Food was great, some simple but very tasty seafood lunch set menu … and Julius was extremely talkative and gave Mariko a run down about all things Bakugan
He was in general surprisingly well behaved, considering that we had not packed any drawing materials.
We also did quite some walking (from Shibuya to Harajuku), where we said bye bye to the girls and me and Julius set out to explore some more and then eventually take several trains back home.
We have tried to get into this place several times before (2006 / 2008), but either the ‘no kids allowed‘ rule kept us away or the line was just way too long.
This is in no way a fancy place, it is a 15 seats counter narrow hallway establishment, but it has been hyped up by many magazine articles as the freshest rice-bowl topped with seafood place in Tokyo. Thus the long line. We actually queued up for 55 minutes. Once you get to the final stretch, you can see the big picture menu and they take your order before you have even entered.
The platter you get is great and a fantastic value, we all had the uni (sea-urchin), ikura (salmon-roe) and nakaochi (pieces from the back bone of tuna. Not pretty shaped pieces of fish, but very yummy) and it was indeed very delicious.
But I have some bones to pick about the whole experience. While the line was not as long as we had seen before, we still lined up for nearly an hour, for 20 minutes of eating time. The only drink served is tea and there is a big ‘no photo’ sign. There is no real service to speak of, as soon as you sit down you get what you had ordered, a besides the main dish there is also a plate of pickles, a soup, a little snack of mini squids filled with fish roe.
My guess is that this ‘no beer – no photo’ rule is all about having people in and out as quickly as possible, to serve more people.
From past experiences, there are other places offering a similar menu, maybe 10% less fresh, but honestly, I could not tell the difference. If you want something a bit more relaxed, keep looking around.
Here is a funny story plus picture from flickr user yusheng. He had slightly more fun trying to take pictures. While I managed to take pics with nobody noticing. (Have to admit, his photo is way better than mine)
Nakaya Donburi
〒104-0045 東京都中央区築地5-2-1
5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045
Tel: 03-3541-0211 (don’t even think about making a reservation)
Not much to report today other than that we checked out from our nice seaside place in Katsuura and took loong trains rides to discover Ritsu’s parents’ new apartment.
For lunch we found some excellent onigiri at the Chiba train station (uni / ikura at 260Y, nice) and nibbled on them on the second leg of our trip.
Julius was the usual trooper and hung out mainly with obachan and ojichan.
from the friendly staff @ Family Mart / Katsuura
Our only late / after dinner shopping options where either the 7/11 or the Family Mart. We visited the later only once, but Julius was smitten by the staff wearing Santa’s little helpers costumes … and they in return were smitten by him.
When I drew the camera for a surprise snap picture, they immediately grouped for a picture with Julius.
For our second xmas dinner we went to another recommended seafood place (sorry, if I don’t have names, I just cannot read them) and had some more gorgeous seafood.
What I especially liked (and I guess Julius, too) were the big fish tanks, so you had a very good idea of just how fresh your food was. I.e. my giant shrimp on the sashimi platter … well .. I saw it alive and kicking 7 minutes before I ate it.
Enjoy the pictures:
Our full day in Katsuura was packed with exploring this little seaside town.
But first we had to open presents, all for Julius. He recently returned from school and was very determined that Santa has to bring him some Bakugan. Whatever that is. I had to google and wiki .. the things one has to learn as a parent. He was overly happy to get some of those. And while I think he is a bit too young to fully understand the game, it might motivate him to learn numbers and adding them.
Then we headed out to see the local market, which was very cute. Further towards the water we could see how the local fishermen dry their daily catch, or sell it directly there. And then there was the beach, which was great for throwing stones in the water.
For all the pictures: click below
 |
… where the lady ama divers used to wear not much else but a loin cloth when they went free diving for food.
But times have changed, and I digress. Door to door it took us about 4 hours by bus and trains to get to our seaside hotel in Katsuura, known for some very fresh seafood. Julius was very excited to meet obachan & ojichan again and kept them busy for a very long time. Katsuura is a quiet seaside resort which does not seem to get many foreign visitors |
(not even sure how popular it is with domestic tourists, in some places it looks a bit run down), there are a lot of quaint little shops and restaurants and we had great xmas eve dinner in one of them.
The fish was super fresh, the service very nice and the price reasonable. I was in sushi & sashimi heaven.
We just survived that 11:45h hour flight from Fankfurt to Narita and everything went surprisingly well, no delays, no lost luggage. And even though the plane was 100% full, it was overall very bearable.
 |
Julius and Ritsu were smart enough to sleep most of the time. I tried, but as usual, failed.
This time around we followed the great idea Ritsu had back in January, and instead of adding 3 hours of public transportation through Tokyo, we just hopped on a hotel shuttle and are now staying at the very same hotel we stayed back in January. |
Which also meant that I could have this fantastic super spicy ramen from across the street again. (So, first dinner back in Japan was exactly the same as last dinner when we left in January)
Now we have to force ourselves to go to bed around 10 / 11 PM in order to get our internal clocks switched to Japan time.
(of course we ended up with a very early onigiri breakfast around 3, but at least we went back to bed)
The nice thing about Germany is that you can easily find a place to eat for early dinner at 5 PM (unlike Italy, where nothing opens before 7:30 PM)
We went to a nice, authentic Turkish place named Wunder Imbiss and had some great food! Julius mainly nibbled on bread and Pide, while we had Iskender Kebab and a huge platter of all kinds of meat. Of course, also some Raki with that.
It is incredibly cold here (-13C) and it also started to snow, which is great fun especially for the little guy.
My dad had the idea to get the snow off the tiny frozen pond in his backyard so they can slide around on it, which ended in both of them falling down and some tears.
Happy holiday greetings from Frankfurt.
While Ritsu was flying in from Dubhai, me and Julius were 1 hour delayed from Turin. But somehow we all managed to meet up and my dad was already waiting at the baggage claim.
It is freakin’ cold here (-13C) and a little snow has blanketed everything, nice holiday atmosphere.
Just like last year, my dad’s wifi network does not allow any new computers to join, so doing email, chat, basically anything is a bit of a drag … hopefully once we are in Japan, things will clear up.
[edit: Ritsu is doing a workshop im Malé, Maldives, and no, it is not all hanging out in the infinity pool all day. In fact, she is so busy that I only received this one picture without any comment ... ]
Recent Comments