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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

So what next? Well, with a few hours until the next time we eat, we thought maybe we should see more of Tokyo. In Shinjuku we walked around trying to find some kind of government building to go up on the observatory. For a while we couldn’t see it, there were so many tall buildings in Shinjuku! While we wondered the streets I saw a most interesting traffic light …um.. fixture… All the lights are fixed in a circle on top of the intersection. Very cool indeed.

Next stop, Shinagawa station to meet up with Ed and Claudia. Claudia heard about this great sushi on a belt place that had very reasonable prices.

I have seen sushi on a belt, never really tried it, but this one takes the cake. On top of having the usual running belt with plates of food, they had beer in buckets and ice cream in coolers. Even cooler is the ordering system.

Each table has a touch screen to order specific types of sushi. Your order then comes on the belt in a red colored container. How do you know it’s your order? First it flashes on the screen and second, it starts to beep the moment it comes within grabbing distance. Very cool.

The method of getting tea is also very interesting. Do it yourself. You scoop a few spoonfuls of the macha powder into your cup and then fill it with hot water from a spigot installed right into the table. Isn’t it great, not having to wait or bother the waitress for hot tea! Ingenious!

When we were done we had collected a huge pile of plates. You then send the plates down a little chute on your table. As you send it down, the monitor counts, and every 10 plates would activate the slot machine. If you win, then a toy from a nearby gasha pon come rolling down. We won once out of our almost 40 plates.

Sidebar: The rating game
While waiting for Ed and Claudia at the train station, Jae came up with a game to play with Diem and I. The first person to see someone wearing a certain color gets to punch the person next to us. The colors were determined by going down the rainbow spectrum. You think colors like purple, orange and yellow would be hard, but the people of Tokyo are fashonable and the game went rather fast, we made it through a few rounds before Ed and Claudia showed up.

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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

After our adventure, we went to a legendary ramen place that was reputed by the internet to have the best ramen in the world, Taishoken on Higashi Ikebukuro in Asakusa. There is a rather interesting history regarding the store too if you care to google it.

The store was packed, should we go in, or wait for someone to call us? I peeked in and the cook waved us in. We waited quietly lined up along the wall watching the eaters slurping their noodle away. Looks and smells so good. Turnover was exceptionally fast. Soon some tables cleared and we gave the cooks our ticket. We paired up and sat separately from the group, no matter, we were there to slurp and go. Within minutes, each of us had a huge piping hot bowl of awesome ramen. The noodle was fresh, the broth, outstanding. For days afterward, Jae and Di the ramen lovers still dreamt of it.

Sidebar: Knowing a few key phrases
I’ve often read that it’s good to know a few key phrases when traveling to a foreign country. That is true, but I find that knowing polite phrases like thank you and excuse me and important words like bathroom is much more useful than knowing ones like Where is x? or How to get there? Because, knowing how to ask doesn’t mean you will understand the answer.

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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

Afterwards we took the subway to Akihabara to check out the electronics and anime of Japan. Again there were no distinct signs pointing to places of interest. We wanted to get to a building that looked like it would be a key place to be but couldn’t for the life of us figure out where we were we came out of from the train station. It would’ve been a great help if we had just known which way north was. We walked a ways, stopped to look at our map and then consulted the maps posted on the sidewalk, but alas they were all in Japanese, and our map entirely in English. Unfortunately I don’t remember any of the Japanese alphabets I learned only a year ago so I couldn’t even sound them out if I wanted to. Eventually we went to a coffee shop for some coffee and to ask directions.

When we finally started down the right street, Binh and Di suddenly had a craving for frenchfries. Spotting a nearby McDonalds, they went in to buy fries. Only to come out dissappointed because it was still breakfast time and they had to wait 10 more minutes. Since we had our walkies, the rest of our group went ahead while Binh and Diem stayed to wait for the fries. Click to continue »

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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

By now, it was around 9, and we were hungry. Since the place was so big, we had to stop to ask a security guy how to get to the restaurant section among all those warehouses. When we reached the restaurant that our Frommers guide recommended, there was already a line. Many foreigners, many carrying a Frommer in their backpack I’d suspect. I must first note that when I say restaurant, I really meant place where food is served to be eaten vs the food that was being sold in the market area, because these places aren’t really restaurants, but a narrow hole in the wall consisting of a cooking area behind a bar and a half dozen stools set up on the other side. One literally has to walk in sideways, back sliding along the wall to get to a seat.

 With such limited seats, and us a group of 6, we were in no mood to wait. Sure the book recommended this place, but there are a dozen other ones around, and they all get their fish from the exact same place… the fish market in the next warehouse, so how different could it be? Diem and Jae went to a place that was advertising eel bowls; for sure that was cooked. The rest of us went to a place two doors down for some fresh fish in the raw.

Ordering was very easy; there were a dozen pictures of the types of meals one could get posted right outside the door. Walking in we just tell them the number we want. I even practiced saying my number in Japanese and they understood!

The meal came with tea, miso, pickles, sweet yams and about 10 pieces of fresh sashimi layered on a bowl of rice, all for under 1700 yen!. Everything was yummy, the fish especially fresh. Di got some crab which she shared and the meat was so sweet! We had to eat fast as there were so few seats and people were already waiting outside. Eat, pay, leave. I wish I could’ve taken a picture of the food, but the place wouldn’t allow pictures.

When we were done we found Jae and Diem having a lively conversation with the owner, JJ, of the eel bowl place. The guy knew English and was busy teaching Japanese to them. Soon we were piled in the small nook repeating phrases after the guy. He even gave us handouts of common phrases to use in restaurants. Like, “What do you recommend?” “Osusumewa nan desuka?” Binh especially took a liking to the word sugeh which I believe means amazing.

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Originally uploaded by silverlantern

We got up really early the next day to see the famous fish market. Jae, who doesn’t eat raw fish didn’t want to go at first because we were planning to eat there for breakfast. I told him that he could come with us to see the place then back to the hotel for a nap while we ate. Diem who also doesn’t do raw also almost didn’t go because she was sleepy. But moments after she declined, she called me back and said that she was in Japan, and visiting fish markets are what tourists do in Japan, so by golly, she gonna do it.

   So, the 6 of us, braving the slight early morning chill, was soon on the subway bound for the Tsuski fish market.

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