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Tokyo Trip – Food Highlights

I could write post after post after post about all the food we ate in Tokyo. Honestly, it was one of the three major pillars of our trip: Food, fountain pens, and fun. Instead, I just want to talk about the best, and maybe a little about the worst.

Best Meat

Gyukatsu Motomura, hands down, the best meat you’ll ever eat for 20 bucks. Gyukatsu means beef deep-fried in panko, or beef schnitzel. Motomura allows you to grill the meat however long you want on a small stone grill.

I already knew the meat was good, the reviews said to order two pieces of meat instead of one. The meat is wagyu although not A5. It’ll still melt in your mouth, filled with flavour. I don’t often dance in my chair from good food, but this piece of meat definitely did.

The whole set menu was great though. The cabbage was crisp (really good with the dressing), the potato salad moist, and the rice tasty. The miso soup was salty, the free barely tea also went well with the Japanese flavours. I’m glad I only ordered one piece because I could finish most of the set too.

My mouth starts watering just from looking at this

Just lightly sear the meat on both sides and try it with the variety of sauces or just salt to see what you prefer. We both liked it with a little soy sauce, but plain is also very good.

The next time we’ll be more prepared and come hungry. If you go to Japan, seek out a Gyukatasu Motomura. They’re all over the place, more than twenty just in Tokyo.

https://www.gyukatsu-motomura.com/en/

Honourable mention: The plain salt chicken skewer from Torikizoku. We went to Torikizoku because we weren’t hungry. Ordering skewers until we had enough seemed like a great idea. And it was. It’s an izakaya restaurant, a place where you drink alcohol and eat. It’s always located on one of the upper floors, so if you’re looking for one, look up. And once you recognize their logo, you’ll see it’s everywhere.

It’s also a place where smoking is allowed. We came early (right when it opened) and no smokers were there. Which is good because it makes me feel sick. We were just leaving when the first smokers arrived.

Bad phone photo, but the delicious plain skewer is the one in the middle

We ordered a bunch of skewers using the tablet they provided. The English menu was easy to understand, luckily. Most of the skewers were chicken (the tori in Torikizoku means bird), but the best one was the plain salted chicken skewer. Not the chicken meatballs with cheese (also very good), or the teriyaki chicken (yum). The regular chicken. As soon as we finished that one, we ordered another set.

https://www.torikizoku.co.jp/

Best Snack

Bake Cheese Tart

I hear about this cheese tart on Youtube, either mentioned by TabiEats or Only in Japan. When I saw the shop at the Ikebukuro station, I knew I had to get them. They have a plain one and a seasonal one. I bought one of each. The seasonal was the blueberry at the time, a special mandarin flavour would be available the day after. Blueberry is one of my favourites, so I was glad to have that one instead of the new seasonal flavour.

One bite was enough to convince me this was the best thing I’d eat the whole trip. Yes, even better than Gyukatsu Motomura.

When we went to New York, I had to try Junior’s cheesecake, the original. Junior’s is the birthplace of the New York cheesecake. We bought two pieces of cake there and we ate it in between meals over three days and still couldn’t finish it. It was too much (also American sizes don’t help) and it was way too heavy.

This little cheese tart was the complete opposite. The tart itself was sweet and crispy. Not too crumbly so you’d lose half of the crust after taking one bite. The cheese itself was still a bit sour, to contrast the sweetness of the crust, and soft, smooth. It had the perfect balance of everything. The thin layer of blueberries (not too much because it’s a small pastry) was just enough to give it another flavour.

The plain one was for my husband, but he shared a bit with me. Yes, I danced in my seat as I tasted it. It’s soooo good, I’m not kidding. The sourness of the cheese is more apparent in the plain one, so if you don’t like your food too sweet, go for this one. It’s perfect. And I understand why the couple in front of me bought two six-piece sets to give away to friends or family and one set for themselves. We had two, which was more than enough after a very lovely dinner, but I could’ve eaten six.

That’s why went to a real store in Odaiba. We stumbled upon it, really. We wanted to get some food in the mall there and I saw the sign outside, with a large cow. It draws attention, then I realized it was the same company. Since we didn’t feel like a full dinner, we just had dessert there.

My husband picked the creme brulee cheesecake and I picked the strawberry tiramisu. We both tried for the other’s dessert, and I honestly couldn’t say which one was better. The cheesecake was covered in the familiar caramel of the creme brulee and the cheesecake itself was just as smooth, fluffy and sour as in the tarts (they sold them there as well, but they were sold out when we got there). The tiramisu was just as good, covered with freeze dried strawberries to give it a little crunch to go with the gooey cheese. No thick coffee flavour here, but the strawberries made a fresh.

These dishes are perfect as they are. If we had this following a meal (like ramen) we wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as we did. You don’t want to your pallet with eating strong flavoured food or drinks before or after you ate this.

Please eat this.

https://cheesetart.com/en

Curry pan

Once we landed at Narita airport and made our way to Tokyo, we had to transfer at Ueno station. There’s a bakery next to the station with the cutest panda bread. We still needed lunch so I went to buy some; panda bread for me, curry bread for my husband. It was a fried bread (or donut, I’m not sure) filled with curry. There was a basket with times, probably the times when the curry pan comes in fresh.

Honourable mention: dorayaki from Lawson.

Every morning we went to the convenience store next to our hotel for breakfast. The breakfast at the hotel costs 1300 yen per person, while we spend around 1000 yen for both our breakfasts at Lawson. And we get to pick something new every day.

But the dorayaki was always part of it. My husband loved them. 89 yen for two dorayaki, two pancakes stuck together with a little butter and maple syrup. That’s less than a dollar. The saltiness of the butter complemented the sweetness of the syrup. And the pancakes were so fluffy you’d hardly believe it’s convenience store food.

We tried the dorayaki from 7/11, which had whipped cream instead of butter and maple syrup, but the one from Lawson was better in my opinion. The saltiness with the sweetness was what made it interesting. It’s not overwhelmingly sweet, and that’s why we kept eating it.

Worst food

I made the mistake of buying a shrimp katsu sandwich. Lawson only has Japanese on their packaging (no English like 7/11) so it was easy to miss. I studied hiragana before the trip, but reading was still a challenge. I released only too late it was shrimp or ebi. I really, really don’t like shrimp. Every time I ate it I feel slightly nauseous, but not quite. I just feel… off. Like I did after I took a bite. Then I checked the wrapper and recognized the hiragana for shrimp.

It was the only thing I’d consider as below average food and it was my own fault. It’s nothing personal, shrimp katsu sandwich, but I just don’t like you.

My husband’s pick would be Saizeriya. We ate there one of the first days when we were still heavily jetlagged. It was cheap, near our hotel, and I wanted to try it out. Seizeria is a family restaurant, the kind of restaurant you’ll see in high school animes. The teenagers are there to gossip, drink free refills until their full, meet with a tutor, all for cheap. The elderly come there because they have comfort food and you don’t have to leave immediately after you finish your plate (which is general practice in most restaurants since table space is limited).

We both had pasta, me a seasonal dish with extra mushrooms, my husband a carbonara. Nothing special. The mushroom flavour was strong and it was perfect in combination with the bacon. I enjoyed it. It still hasn’t the best pasta I’d ever eaten, but it was worth the 499 yen. My husband didn’t like his plate. It didn’t have much flavour and he barely finished it. Later his stomach agreed the pasta wasn’t that good. I’d eat there again, he won’t.

Tokyo Trip: Typical Tourist Things I Won’t Do

When you tell people you go to a certain place, they’ll often respond with amazing experiences they’ve had or things they’ve heard from others. It’ll be often in the form of an inquiry (Will you go do X or Y?) or recommendation (You HAVE to do x, seriously). I don’t respond well to the later form. I can be quite stubborn, thanks to my father, so when someone tells me to do something, I’ll often disregard whatever they say.

I like to find things out on my own. Everyone prefers different things and I’m lucky that my husband likes most of the same things in regards of vacation activities. But for our Tokyo trip, I know we’ll be doing some things that aren’t high on his priority listen. He’s willing to compromise for me.

Going to a ryokan


Going to a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, is an experience that’s truly unique to Japan. The standards for the guest service is exceptional and most ryokans have food to die for.

But they include seafood. Ryokan are traditional and the food reflects that. They often include traditional dishes to complement the rice and miso soup. The traditional Japanese diet doesn’t include meat, fish only, because of the Buddhist principles of earlier emperors.

Most ryokan also have a public onsen, hot water baths. The baths are now separated by gender, but the nudity is still enforced. If you’re not comfortable being naked in the presence of others, this won’t be a good experience. You’ll only get a tiny to cover yourself as you walk towards the bath, but the towel cannot touch the bath water.

I’m very self conscious and I don’t need a bathing house full of Japanese women to confirm that my body is indeed different from theirs. I could solve it by booking a room with a private onsen and do my own ritual, but that’s even more expensive. Not really an option.

Eating sushi

We both don’t like fish or seafood. Making us go to a sushi bare is torture. In relation to that, we won’t be going to the newly renovated Tsukiji market either.

Visiting the Robot Restaurant

This is also one that nearly all guide books mention and one I’ll happily pass on. We’re on a budget and going to an overpriced restaurant for below average food and weird entertainment is not on our list of things to do.

The Robot restaurant allows you to film and through the wonders of the internet, you can see the performances without going there. There are different performances so I don’t know if the one you’ll see online is the same as they have there. The performance I saw was a psychedelic experience that reminded me of the Power Rangers. People in elaborate costumes fight using robots as vehicles. I have no idea what the story was about despite it being in English.

It’s filled with lots of colours, lights and smoke. It’s definitely an experience, but not one that I can’t do without. To compare, the robot restaurant experience will cost you 8000 yen without meal. A one day ticket to Tokyo Disney is 7400 yen. Which one would you pick?

Tokyo Trip: Where It All Began

If you’ve read my latest post here or follow me on Twitter, you might have heard that I’m going to Japan this year. We’re just visiting Tokyo, but there’s so much to do and so much I want to see, that we won’t be bored.

My interest began many years ago, but I was already Pokemon daily and regularly watched Dragonball Z, Sailormoon, or other dubbed anime on Jetix. But there is one other pop culture franchise that truly launched me into the otaku world: Kingdom Hearts.

I’m not even talking about the game (which is amazing), but the TV ad that ran before it came out. I loved Disney and Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts had both. The anime look just completed it.

The ad had the amazing soundtrack done by Utada Hikaru. The song is called Simple and Clean in English and Hikaru in Japanese. I fell in love with that song and I spend two hours looking for it online. I don’t remember if the ad actually mentioned it, but I missed it. The Japanese version popped up first and later I found the English version. But I was hooked.

I explored more of Utada’s music and found Maaya Sakamoto later. She’s also a well known seiyuu. One of the shows she did was Escaflowne which was one of the first animes I watched.

From there on, I went into jdrama. Kimi wa Petto was my first, with Matsumoto Jun. I loved his acting and looked him up. He is the concert master of the boyband Arashi. He provides the MC when necessary when they do live performances.

I just found out there’s a remake of Kimi wa Petto on Viki from a few years ago and I might have to watch it now…

Arashi was the biggest snowball. From there I found more jdramas, other Japanese artists and connected more with the Japanese culture from watching their variety shows. If you need something fun to watch, try finding episodes of Himitsu no Arashi with English subs. Below is a highlight reel of things they do.

All of the Arashi members did their own shows and series. By watching most of what they’ve done, drama or real life things, my knowledge and interest in the Japanese culture became larger.

My wish to visit Japan and see the places from the series in real life, taste the foods that they showed, but most of all, I want to try the sweets.

Come back later to follow me as I prepare for the trip of a lifetime. If you want to know more about something specific (like my obsession with Arashi or Pokemon) let me know in the comments below so I can dedicate a separate post to it.

101 Goals, 1001 Days: Learning Japanese

I’ve been watching anime for a long time and with Netflix including more foreign programs, I’ve been watching more drama shows and reality series as well. Through watching that, I’ve learned some basic Japanese phrase, but it’s not nearly enough to survive a trip to Japan.

When I first met my brother’s girlfriend she was impressed with the phrases I knew. Most of what I know are the oneliners from anime and manga.

Ohayou, konbanwa, hajimemashite, aishiteru, oyasuminasai.

That’s nothing special, right? That’s why I’m slowly expanding my vocabulary with Duolingo. It’s become easier for me to recognize words in sentences, although the sentence structure is still hard to understand. Grammar (no matter what language) has always been my weak point.

I don’t think Duolingo is the perfect tool to learn Japanese. After the first basic lessons, you will learn harder words and phrases which use those words. But they don’t talk about the words used to connect nouns. So the one thing that I’m struggling with, they don’t explain.

Luckily, through my interest, I’ve already bought some books on learning Japanese. Combining these source has been a great way to increase my mastery of the language and I notice that when I’m watching Japanese series, it’s easier to recognize what they’re saying. I still need subtitles to confirm what they say, but I can look away for a second and know that I haven’t missed much.

I hope that by the time we go to Tokyo I will know how to ask my way, understand directions, know how to order food and read a menu.

Planning My Tokyo Trip

It’s been a long time wish to go to Japan and my brother gave us the tickets as a wedding gift. His girlfriend is Japanese and she even offered to show us around. I’m really looking forward to the trip, but we still have to save  up for accommodation, transfers and public transport and food. But my shopping list is growing as well.

Right now I’m looking at what I want to do and see. My husband is okay with everything. He will let me guide him to all the awesomeness of Japan. We’ll probably only go to Tokyo for now (we don’t want to leave our dog with my parents for too long).

Places

Karaoke and visiting an arcade are high on my list. I know the guys won’t like the first, but they’ll enjoy the second. Tokyo Tower is a must see, since chances are slim that I’ll ever go to Paris to see the real one. Tokyo has another tower, Skytree. It also has an observation deck, but I’m more interested in the shopping area around it. A Pokemon Center is located there and there’s an aquarium. I always love going to one when I can.

I want to go to Asakusa as well, the more traditional side of Tokyo. The temple there is a huge tourist attraction because it’s big and beautiful. See how crowded it is?

I want to see the traditional and the modern Japan, so a visit to Akihibara is a must. Maybe we’ll go to an arcade hall there.

Food

Most people will say that you just have to have sushi while you’re in Japan. We’re no fish eaters though, so we’ll skip the sushi bars. I’d like to go to an izakaya and have curry rice, I want to taste delicious ramen, and sweet snacks.

I watched Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman, a Japanese show about an office worker who loves to check out desserts around Tokyo. All shops in this show are real and I hope to visit some of them. In particular the parfait shop in Shinjuku and maybe the pancake shop.

In one of the episodes Kantaro is craving a melon parfait, and my, does it look delicious! All of the fruits are high quality and are served with whipped cream and/or ice cream. The prices are high, but it’s worth it. There’s almost always a line for these delicious treats.

From fourtrive.com

In another episode Kantaro wants to eat pancakes. We have pancakes here but the Japanese pancakes are very different. Look at how fluffy they are! I’d soak them in maple syrup before I eat. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Shops

My fountain pen hobby is expensive. One of the pros of going to the Japan will be cheaper prices for the Japanese brands. The Iroshizuku ink is half the price of what I would pay here. There are also limited editions which aren’t sold outside of the Tokyo stores or Japan.

Tokyu Hands is very high one my list. People say it’s the place to get stationery. They have everything from vintage to cute to fancy. There are a ton of Youtube videos with stationery hauls. I could watch them all day, but it won’t be good for my wallet. I’m definitely setting a budget for Tokyu Hands so I can’t spend too much.

Itoya is another store for pen and paper lovers. After the renovation a few years ago, the look of the shop changed to a modern style and dedicated each floor to its own theme. The third floor is probably the place where I’ll spend most of my time, the one with over 2000 fountain pens.

This is just the beginning of what I want to do. I still have to look into things a little more and learn basic Japanese to I can find my way around when we’re just with the two of us. Have you ever been to Tokyo or have tips for travelling there? Please leave them in a comment below!

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