We met up with Alec's skiing group in Tokyo but still had time for some amazing food! Japan is famous for their beef (which some people don't realize). Wagyu beef is incredibly tender and a bit fatty. I like fat in meat (my downfall) so I loved it. You can see in the photo below how marbled the rare beef is. I think US beef has been prohibited for import in Japan nowadays. Beef is incredibly expensive there.
A random restaurant near the Imperial Palace that we went to. We ordered lunch sets. This beautiful beef was served cold. It was delicious!
The sashimi and 3 vegetable meal that I ordered - From top right (Clockwise): Fresh sashimi - octobus and a white tuna, cold mashed pumpking, an edamame, corn, greens, salad, roasted eggplant with a dark soysauce sauce.
Both of our meals came with brown rice, pickles, and miso soup. Needless to say, we were stuffed!
We went out to the Ghibli museum, - a truly magical place. Its a children's museum but its devoted to the art and animation of Hiyao Miyazaki and the Ghibli studio. They created such beautiful films as: Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke.
At the end of the day we stopped for a drink in the Straw Hat Cafe. The food was as magical as the museum. I had a "sunset ice cream soda". As you stirred it, the chemicals reacted to turn it from blue to pink. And it was delicious! And the sipping straw was made from a real straw!
For more information about this fantastic museum, check out this blog: Haikugirl or go to their wikipedia entry.
The low light of the culinary feast across Japan was a very expensive yet underwhelming dinner at the R2 Supper Club in Roppongi. The company was divine but the fish was overcooked and not warm. I didn't even take a photo of the indifferent hummous and something masquerading as babaghanouj. The warm cheesecake with strawberry ice cream was fabulous however and saved the meal. I had two Shochu-tinis which did not even give me a buzz yet managed to cost me $15 each. The place is much better as a place for overly expensive drinks than for dinner although to be fair, we were a group of 20 people so perhaps that caused the fish to dry up but there's no excusing that baba ghanouj.
Boring and dry.
The last day we spent together, we went to a gorgeous open air sculpture museum in Hakone. It was snowing but it was a gorgeous way to experience all the beautiful art work - sculptures by Calder, Henry Moore, and a large Picasso collection. They even have a warm foot bath! Perfect for those 'barking dogs'. Oddly, they float oranges and lemons in the foot bath.
Catch the orange in the footbath.
Alec in the bath!
Everyone loves the footbath!
Picasso!
I think this bison knows that I enjoy buffalo meat.
On a clear day, you would see Mt Fuji which we didn't but they did have Mt Fuji cookies!
Hello Mt Fuji! You look delicious!
and the last night I spent in Tokyo I spent with a lovely friend who took me out for Teppanyaki. But first we walked by one of the famous Fugu (puffer fish) bars. We didn't stop in but I was tempted to play Russian Roulette!
That's how you know they serve Fugu.
Not quite as pretty as their big brother on the sign above the door.
My friend's relative took me to her favorite place to eat in Tokyo - Dante's, a place made famous by a visit by Michael Jackson! The Teppanyaki was fantastic. The steak was rich and tender, the scallops perfectly done, and the rice delicioius. They put on quite a show for us.
Preparing to make a nice medium rare dish for us.
The first flaming!
Perfectly cooked!
FIRE!
It was an amazing food adventure across Japan. There were lots of things I didn't get the chance to eat but I'll be back for sure! Luckily, I live in Bangkok which has lots of Japanese restaurants so I hope to head out for more Japanese cuisine soon!
Eating our way through Kyoto! When we arrived, because it was February - it was freezing cold and raining buckets (which sometimes turned into sleet and snow). We checked into our hotel and ran next door to a soba restaurant. I expected it to be a cheap noodle joint. WRONG! Handmade soba (a noodle made of buckwheat) was the order of the day. Since we were cold to the bone, we ordered the set lunch menu. However, we were so hungry, we forgot to take a photo of the actual beautiful soba that we ate. Oh well. I have found a photo for you.
Warming green tea to start off. I adore the pottery in Japan.
Setting up the meal. I learned that you are not supposed to move the plates around after I moved the plates around. Oh well! Presentation is always elegant.
This is similar to the cold soba that we had on a bamboo tray. My favorite!
This was similar to the hot soba dish we ate but ours was more brothy and in a type of miso with seaweed.
After the meal, they had us mix the leftover broth from the hot soba into a barley "mush" to make a type of hot thick porridge that we were assured was very healthy for us. I'm not sure either of us realy enjoyed it. We were then served some delicious cinnamon ice cream with roasted barley on top. After this, between the travel, the good food, and the cold rain - it was nap time. Nap time ended up lasting through the night.
The next day we got up bright and early to hit all the Kyoto temples and shrines. It was snowing so we needed to fortify ourselves with snacks!
Alec regards his "boot" of lemonade suspiciously.
Fried pastry grilled like a waffle but filled with a delicious custard. Beautiful and tasty!
Even the temples have restaurants, snack bars, and even holy water that is going to cure all my diseases and grant me a wish!
C'mon Holy Water - do your thing.
Alec is also getting into the spirit of it. Neither of us chose to buy a special cup and took our chances with the "ultra-violet light" purifying stand that the cups were kept in so we feel safe and sound.
We were cold in the temple, so we stopped at the snack bar. Along with the free cup of hot green tea, I also ordered something that sounded divine - it was ginger with hot sake. What it didn't mention, however was that it was a porridge like consistency.
Thick and hot and sweet and spicy and alcoholic. Somehow it didn't work for me though.
After a cold day walking around the snacks, we saw a sign for a whisky bar and thought that might warm us up.
"Highball" bar. This bar had nothing but whisky in it. It was so cold we stopped in for a dram. Unfortunately, I neglected to realize that a highball will have ice and soda water in it. So my Laphroig was diluted down and ice cold. Which was disappointing.
Then we went home for a "disco nap" in our new Ryokan - the lovely "Ryokan Sakura". We stayed in a lovely room called the "Tea Ceremony Room".
Alec doing the traditional Asian photo pose while collapsed on his futon.
Traditional decoration with a little alcove.
I think I'm mixing up my Thai with my Japanese but I loved the complimentary cotton robes!
One of the best reasons to visit Japan in the winter is to realize the crazy pleasure that is the heated toilet seat. After a long frigid day out in the wind, stepping into the commode room to a heated seat is a wonderful pleasure! We took a brief nap and then headed out to eat again.
Sake - delicious hot sake.
Skewers of fish in a miso sauce. We also had pork and chicken skewers. Delicious and beautiful!
The bar area of Kyoto where there are literally hundreds of little bars!
Luckily, we drank too much sake to remember to take photos of the riotous Karaoke night that followed. Just to give you a taste - imagine a bar with six stools. Three Japanese are enjoying a night out of solemnly singing Japanese music and in burst Alec and I. I wanted to sing. I sang such great karaoke hits as "Immigrant Song", "Get into the Groove", and "Make some noise".
Watch the videos and you'll see - I was just like this! Completely in tune. I promise you.
Yeah - I've got the Robert Plant hair and the pipes!
And I was doing the dance from Suddenly Susan....
I may even have done the "old school, throw down dance contest from the future". You are SERVED!
Then our gracious Japanese hosts invited us to join them in a great version of a classic Japanese-American friendship song found below....
In February of this year, I took a week trip to Japan with my friend Alec. He was going skiing for a week in the North but neither of us had ever been to Japan and we wanted to see what it was like. For me, of course, the food was a big draw.
We started in Tokyo where I spent three nights in a Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) with its heated bath. One of the highlights of the Ryokan is the Japanese breakfast in the morning.
Green Tea, pickled vegetables, miso soup, rice, and a piece of salmon and some omelet. Nori on the side to mix in with rice! Delicious way to start the day.
At the Ryokan, they also have lovely green tea in the room for you to sip while you sit on the pillows on the tatami mats. In Ryokan Sawanoya, where I stayed in Tokyo near the Ueno park, the tea was particularly good.
With a little origami crane to say hello!
When Alec arrived we explored a crazy area called Shibuya which is filled with trendy Tokyo teenagers shopping and milling about. It's home to the craziest street crossing in the world. I didn't think to go up to the 2nd floor Starbucks and take a video but here's one to give you a feel for it. We were there at night so it was bathed in neon lights too...
After feeling a bit overwhelmed, we just went into a sushi place never suspecting it was a conveyor belt sushi place! We felt so proud of ourselves for mastering the technology!
The menus are printed in front of you and you use a touchscreen television screen to select 3 dishes and your beverages.
Then they whiz along the conveyor belt quickly to your "station" at the bar.
Delicious! I made a dent. And it was cheap!
Alec demonstrating proper chopsticks technique. Note the big pile of plates from our neighbors nextdoor.
After a fast and furious day in Tokyo, we got up early the next morning to take the Shinkasen (bullet train) to Kyoto. And since it was Alec and I, we got SNACKS! We were obsessed with the Japanese snacks and a trip to 7-11 was always a treat.
Onigiris are rice balls in a cool wrapper that keeps the seaweed crisp and the rice moist!
Often filled with salmon, salmon roe, umeboshi plum (salt pickeled sour plum), tuna, and fish roe. The one I got on the train was tuna mayonnaise and then I got another one that was salmon. It was a lottery as I couldn't read the Japanese.
Japanese 7-11s actually produce decent food! No gross burritos here!
Look at that selection!
We bought rice cracker snacks (our favorite had crab on them), aloe vera flavored jelly squares, Japanese chocolate, hot green tea from a heated rack, Asahi and Sapporo beer, jasmine green tea, some gloves, moisturizer, and numerous other things.
