Okay, so this time the waking up on vacation at pre-dawn was totally unplanned and not my fault. It just so happened to be that we were never going to get used to the time change. So we had planned ahead and made our way to Tsukiji Fish Market again, this time our destination was Uni-Tora – the restaurant we had seen the day before that had the longest line. We didn’t know it was called Uni-Tora, and we didn’t know why it had a line, but it looked good so why not. Turns out it is most known for… Uni! Uni is the reproductive organ of a sea urchin, and is a delicacy food. We waited in line for quite a while because there are only nine seats in the restaurant, which gave us ample time to plot what we were going to order. Todd ordered something that had a little bit of tuna served with it, and I went all in on the uni – five different types. I can still taste uni just thinking about it and can definitively say that I do not need to eat any uni for the near future. It was delicious though – the different types all had a subtly different flavor but all shared a distinct creamy texture/mouth feel. It was definitely worth the wait, and we would both definitely go again, except we’d order something that came with a little bit of uni and a lot a bit of medium fatty tuna.
Breakfast complete we made our way to our next destination: teamLab Planets. Along the way we stopped to get some life nourishing caffeine – accomplished by pointing at the menu and giving the universal signal for “I would like one of these things.” The coffee shop was located in a random office building though, so the first challenge was actually finding how to get there. We made it to teamLab Planets to discover that they were fairly strict on the timing of when you could get in with your ticket. That meant just a little bit of a wait, for which my legs thanked me graciously, but more core groaned in protest because it was getting a little bit chilly (imagine it being cold in November?!). The actual teamLab experience is very unique. I don’t know if words or pictures can do it justice, because it really is all about the experience. Overall it was definitely cool, and definitely weird, and definitely worth it. Especially because afterwards we got some delicious vegan ramen in this really cool room nobody seemed to know about (I knew about it from watching Kara and Nate’s youtube and Todd knew about it because he actually reads signs and stuff).
Our next adventure was to figure out what we wanted to do next. So the obvious solution was to navigate to another bar to grab a drink. Todd found us a train that took us the long way – basically around the harbor – which gave us some awesome views of Tokyo. This bar had a very helpful young lady come show us that we just needed to order with our phones. This involves one person having their phone open to the website, and the other person holding their phone with google translate open over the first phone so you can actually read what the menu says. Or you can just YOLO and pick something if you’re feeling adventurous. After finishing the beer we decided it was time to go shopping, specifically for knives. We had been looking on the map at shops in the Kappabashi area, so logically we went to all of them. I wisely decided that I already had enough knives, even though I was seriously tempted to buy so many of them. We got one for pops and then Todd picked out a hybrid carbon steel/stainless steel beauty for use at his house. If you sensed a theme in how our days go, yes, the next stop was to take a nap at the hotel.
Nap complete we both decided we couldn’t wait until 7:00 pm for our next meal so we made the only reasonable choice of having pre-dinner coffees and cakes. Our dinner tonight was something both of us were way looking forward to – a 16 course omakase at Ginza Ichibun. We were greeted by the chef’s assistant when we first walked in, although it was a little awkward because the 6 people in the restaurant obviously were looking at us and I thought we were somehow really late! Awkwardness passed quickly, and we put a drink order in for some sake and sat down to experience the best sushi meal I think I will probably ever have. I didn’t like every single course (looking at you oyster) and some I had already eaten my fill of (I can still taste uni…) but it was truly divine. The most fatty tuna might be the single most delicious bite of food I have ever eaten. We both agreed that we could only eat a couple of those at most, but could eat countless pieces of medium fatty tuna.
Turns out waking up early was the theme of this vacation. I trolled the internet for things to do and we decided on heading over to Meiji Jingu and then continue down to Shibuya Crossing. It turns out when you get to the temple at 7:52 am there aren’t really that many people there. This temple is dedicated to the kami (I think its like a spirit/god being) of the emperor and empress of Japan that ended the shogunate and began the modernization of Japan. We walked around, got some good photos, learned how to purify ourselves, and then walked down to Shibuya. It turns out that the busiest intersection in the world (ish) is not actually that busy at 8:45 am. Also nothing is open so we meandered around for a while before being able to make the most important stop of the day: morning ramen. We went to a chain (Ichiran) which was absolutely fantastic. Honestly it was just what I was looking for in ramen, although lacked a little of the pizzaz that the vegan ramen had… but tasted better because pork fat. Our next stop was to the Tokyo pokemon store and the nintendo store. Both of which were brimming with people and we got some good souvenirs.
We didn’t really have much to do the rest of the day, but we did make one more trip to Tsukiji market so that I could buy some ramen bowls to take home. Todd had purchased his the previous day. I think his weighed more than the two of mine combined. After that I got some matcha ice cream (was delicious) and Todd ordered… something. It had a sweet sesame paste on it. And they were grilled to order. They were doughy deliciousness, but I don’t know if either of us actually know what they are. We walked back to the hotel, checked out, stowed our bags, and made the trip around the block to get some more ramen. This was by far the most touristy place we went… and the ramen was our least favorite. It was still good, but just not AS good. To make up for this we made our way to Tokyo station for… you guessed it. More ramen. I am a little unclear as to the exact timeline, but I might’ve had three bowls of ramen in six hours. We stopped at another bar for a drink before heading back to the hotel to pick up the bags and take the train to the airport. Once safely inside the lounge I… ordered another bowl of ramen. And then I had one on the plane. Don’t judge, ramen is its own food group that satisfies all your nutritional needs.
