tokyo

On Saturday, Satoshi had a party to attend to in Tokyo. His university baseball team turned 100.

I wasn't invited to the party, only alumni were, but Satoshi thought it would be nice for me to go with him to Tokyo.

Since he had some time before his party, he tagged along with me.

We stopped at an area near Meiji-Jingu called Gaienmae. This one street has a row of icho (gingko biloba).

The weather was beautiful, and many, many people had come out to see the leaves.

Before checking out the leaves, we had lunch at Cafe de F.O.B. (F.O.B. stands for "free on board", apparently a trading term). I ordered the salad plate and Satoshi ordered the croque madame plate.

Rarely do you find salad as an entree around Japan. The salad was HUGE (by Japanese standards)--roast chicken, lettuce, hard boiled egg, green beans, some raisins & nuts, a creamy curry dressing...yum.

Satoshi also enjoyed his sandwich and helped me eat the salad.

After lunch, we checked out the leaves and then went to Shibuya.

I wanted to check out some things at Tokyu Hands and then Satoshi went off to his party.

Since it was about tea time, I went to check out the Fiat Caffe near Aoyama. When they opened last year, they invited us to the opening party, but since we live in Osaka, we didn't attend.

I intended to have coffee and something sweet, but the waitress, told me if I only have something to drink I could have a seat.

I was kinda turned off by this, but ordered a cappuccino anyway and rested my feet.

I was also quite shocked when my cappuccino arrived in a paper cup.

Oh well, I went, saw the new Abarth Scorpion...no need to go back there again.

Since it was almost 3, I checked in at the Tokyo Green Palace and then took a little nap.

Then at about 4-ish, I went back out to Marunouchi to buy something for dinner.

I went back to Boulangerie Viron and bought a Coppa, this was proscuitto, cheese and lots of mushrooms, eggplant and red, yellow bell peppers...delicious.

Most items had already sold out by then, so I couldn't get the Kouign Amann that I wanted to try, and instead tried their Bostock de la Pistache...a brioche topped with raspberry jam, lots of chopped pistachios, covered with a sugar glaze and topped with almonds...the liqueur that they use is really strong but this isn't too sweet.

The shopping area was all lit up too, beautiful.

From Marunouchi, I went to check out Tokyo Tower, it is pretty amazing to see during the day but is beautiful when it is all lit up.

I then went back to eat my dinner and wait for Satoshi to come back...which ended up being "early in the morning"...sigh.

Being a morning person, I woke up pretty easily despite the lack of sleep the night before. At about 8, I went down to have breakfast in their restaurant.

It was buffet-style so I had some Western and some Japanese items.

Satoshi woke up 5 minutes before the buffet ended (at 9:30) and went down for breakfast.

We checked out at about 11 and went to Tsukiji, where Satoshi wanted to eat lunch at.

There was an area that we had never been to, it is an area outside of the auction area called Tsukijijogai-shijo.

It is an arcade filled with teeny hole in the wall places to eat...seafood! buy seafood...look at seafood.

We didn't really want to stand in long lines, and Satoshi didn't really want to eat at a chain sushi shop. In the end, we stood in a short line and had some seafood bowls at Taneichi.

Pay for your meal before sitting and within 5 minutes (give or take)...everything comes out.

I ordered the Kaisendon 1000 yen (about US$10), this had kanpachi (amberjack), tako (octopus), ikura (salmon roe), salmon, maguro (tuna) & uni (sea urchin) and some tamogoyaki (sweet omlette).

Satoshi ordered the Negitoroikuradon 1000 yen (about US$10), this had negitoro (which is minced fatty tuna mixed with green onion), ikura (salmon roe) & some tamagoyaki (sweet omlette).

He also had some miso soup...100 yen (about US$1)

Everything was really fresh and delicious. You knew everyone was enjoying their food because no one was talking, just eating.

I noticed that there weren't many foreigners too, just Japanese...I guess most of the foreigners eat near the auction area.

The weather was beautiful, and it was a fun two days, even if Satoshi and I did a lot of things on our own.

Have a nice week.

Tokyo Green Palace
Nibancho, Nibancho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5210.4600

Cafe de F.O.B.
2-3-1 Kita-Aoyama
Minato, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5770.4826
Open: 11:30-20:00

Fiat Caffe (UPDATE: 2016 no longer in business)
1-4-5 Kita-Aoyama, Loge Aoyama 1 & 2 F
Minato, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5771.7662
Open 11:30-23:00 (later on weekends)

Taneichi
4-9-5 Tsukiji
Chuo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3248.5517
Hours: 6:30-16:00
Closed when Tsukiji market is