Japan Trip 2013 - Day 3

Today was a very long day. Our bodies did not recover fully from yesterday's 12 hour trek. So we were very tired despite today's shorter walk. First thing's first...the morning started with a green tea Pon de Ring from Mister Donut...but it didn't taste like green tea so :< paid an extra ３６円 for nothing.

Green Tea Pon de Ring

Lipton Flavored Tea

We got some of these teas at the convenience store....so tasty! Probably high in fructose corn syrup though. They do taste what they advertise though! Afterwards we made our way to Shibuya to check out Sweets Paradise, otherwise known as a dessert buffet.

Sweets Paradise in Shibuya - The sugary dessert buffet

Strawberry mousse, green tea mousse, tiramisu, and others

Located in the Parco department store-Part 3 building, $15 will get you admitted into this place. The target audience is obviously young girls that love sweets (though we did see some guys there as well). About 10% of the buffet consisted of pastas and sides which chefs would call out when a fresh batch is put out. The rest was an array of cakes...from roll cakes, to cream puffs, to mousse cakes, to sponge cakes...not to mention a chocolate fountain as well.  

Kitty came into the buffet excited to try all the sweets.  She was expecting high quality desserts, but she stated that eventually all the mousses and cakes tasted the same. They were not bad cakes, simply average. Perhaps we are just old fogies and do not have the vigorous sweet tooths that young girls have. Definitely an affordable experience and recommend for those that love love love cakes.

After wandering around the shops, we got really tired and wanted to sit as well as something savory to supplement those cakes. Kitty noticed a place called Funwari Tamago that specialized in making omelette rice souffle style.

Beef Mushroom Demiglace Omelette Rice

Super Fluffy Souffle Goodness Spilling Out

This was an amazing omelette rice. The eggs were like clouds, and each spoonful was so savory and wholesome. Despite being a little full from the dessert buffet, we cleaned this plate through and through. This restaurant took omelette rice to a whole new level.

Food coma really hit us then, so we went back for a nap before heading out to Ikebukuro where we combed through Seibu's (a Japanese department store) gourmet food basement. 

-=-Travel Tip!-=-

Whenever traveling to Japan, one MUST visit the basement floor of a department store because it is a treasure hold down there of food, snacks, gourmet items, and all that is nom worthy. 

One of Many Gourmet Cake Shops

Croquette

Sweet Potato Croquette

Ducky was craving to try a croquette from Japan, so we took this opportunity to get one.  We just chose a stall at random that had the croquette.  After we bought this croquette, we saw some other stalls with more enticing breading and wish we had taken a look around first.  The croquette we bought was not bad though.  We were expecting a normal potato croquette, but it turned out to be a sweet potato croquette.  This is a bit unusual, but it had a nice sweet and savory taste to it.  Ducky still would prefer the normal potato croquette over the sweet potato, so the search still continues.

Peach Jelly Tart

There were just too many stalls with fanciful desserts.  These were the kind of desserts Kitty wished for when we went to Sweets Paradise for lunch.  We settled on this wonderful looking peach jelly tart.  It was a bit pricey at around 600 yen, but, after tasting it, we concluded that it was worth every penny.  The jelly, the tart, and the peach all had a delicate sweet peach taste that was not too overwhelming.  The tart absorbed the peach flavor and offered a nice contrast in texture to the peach and jelly. We definitely recommend at least trying any of the desserts down here as they all looked so enticing.

Namco Namjaland

 We ventured over the Namco Namja Town which is a little mini amusement park for kids. There was a ５００円 entrance fee. If we knew Japanese a bit better we would have been able to enjoy many of the little amusement quests they had for their patrons. Otherwise we strolled over to the Gyoza Stadium, which offered gyoza, gyoza, and more gyoza.

Gyoza

Kitty wanted to try an order of Gyoza inside of Namjaland.  There were many stalls that sold gyoza, but we chose the one at the end of the "street".  The gyoza was 4 pieces for 380円, which is a bit pricey compared to what I am used to paying for gyoza back in the US.  However, these gyoza were quite tasty.  The bottoms were nicely fried to make a crispy layer.  The filling of chicken and onions was nice a moist.  The top of the gyoza was soft and the bottom was crispy.  We both agreed that we much prefer gyozas to be crispy all around, but these gyozas were nonetheless delicious.  For the price, we recommend trying them once if you happen to be in Namjaland, but it isn't worth paying the entrance fee just to eat these gyozas.

Pork Shabu Somen Set with Onigiri

We didn't have a real meal for dinner, so we still had some room in our stomachs from all that snacking. Kitty casually swung by a shop in the station when she noticed the set deal for ９６０円. It was a cold noodle soup dish that was extremely refreshing in the sweltering heat. We had the choice of choosing 2 onigiris (rice balls), so we chose the chicken and the preserved vegetables one. 

Kimchi Flavored Pringles

We found some Kimchi flavored Pringles and decided to give it a try.  Kitty and Ducky have conflicting opinions on these Pringles.  The chips have a nice kimchi like smell.  However, to Ducky it does not taste like Kimchi, but just a savory spicy taste with some kimchi aftertaste.  Kitty thinks they are just fine and taste like Kimchi, but it is not a flavor she would buy again. 

Japan Trip 2013 - Day 2

Mornings mean donuts right? RIGHT. And what better place to get a donut than Mister Donut itself! (Basically the Dunkin' Donuts of Japan)

We got the original Pon de Ring which has a subtly sweet honey glaze. What really appealed to me about this donut was how CHEWY it was. It was as if donut and mochi made a child. And that child is a Pon de Ring from Mister Donut.

After a 30 minute train ride we found ourselves to the heart of anime/manga/video game culture: Akihabara! But a little too early....don't come here before 10 AM, nothing is open. When stores opened we...by we...it was actually Kitty...did a lot of souvenir shopping. There were mountains and hordes of goods. But when lunch time came around we were hungry and since we're in Akihabara...time for our very first authentic maid cafe experience!

There were many maid cafes, but we chose @homecafe since it looked the nicest...and cutest....and most moe. 

They had English menus as well so for visitors who do not understand Japanese at all, we recommend this place! There is an initial 600 entrance fee per each adult and then there are various items you can order but we opted for the food set which included a meal, a drink, and a polaroid snapshot with a maid of our choice. 

When they found out we were from America, they were nervous since they did not have an English speaking maid present. But thankfully Kitty's Japanese got us by. They gave us these moe ambassador chopsticks as a bonus.

We started with the Magic Shaker drinks. Ducky got milk base and I got soda base. The maid has us repeat after her while she mixed our drinks. "Moe moe" "Kyun kyun" "Nyan nyan" "Oishiku-nare~!" (Become delicious). It did become delicious...delicious of moe high fructose corn syrup. We also got moe water too.

Kitty's Omelette Rice!

Ducky's Omelette Rice!

Normally we'd choose different entrees but we wanted the maid to draw on our food...so yes. Lots of moe. We moe-fied our food as well. 

This parfait wasn't part of the set but Kitty got greedy and ordered a mango parfait. While we ate, they called one of us over individually to take a polaroid snapshot. We actually had the option of either getting a photo or playing a game with a maid, but we really wanted to take home a memorabilia. 

In the end, they gave us a frequent visitor's card (legit plastic material!). Overall this maid cafe was a very wonderful experience and a must do for any visitor to Japan!

Later on we wandered to Asakusa to visit the famouse Senso-ji Temple. Along the way we snacked on various items:

Left: Dango + Iced Green Tea; Right: Green Tea Manju + Iced Green Tea

Center: Tofu Doughnut + Yuzu Tofu

In the area in front of the Senso-ji temple, we bought some dango and green tea manju.  The green tea manju didn't taste like anything special and we would not recommend it.  It tasted just like a regular manju with red bean filling, but covered in green tea powder.  The dango was like chewy mochi and it was covered in messy peanut powdered sugar.  We both agreed that the fresh hot dango was much better than the manju.  After going to the temple and praying for good fortune, we left for Ueno Park.  Along the way back, we bought a tofu doughnut and some yuzu tofu.  We both thought the doughnut was cakey and did not have the nice fluffy nature we expected from a doughnut.  The Yuzu tofu had bits of citrus in it, giving its subtle zesty flavor.  

After the park, we had dinner at a Sakaba Yakitori Bunraku in Ueno. We were simply wandering around the street shopping and noticed this little area full of grilled meats and beer. Always a good sign.

We chose this for dinner because we wanted a local Japanese street dinner experience.  Much like our street seafood dinner experience when we were in Hong Kong.  The restaurant is tailored towards the eating and drinking alcohol atmosphere that salarymen want to unwind after a long days work.  As such, one half of the menu consisted mostly of parts of chicken and some beef that can be barbecued on a skewer and the other half was alcoholic beverages. Here's what we ordered: 

Tsukune (Chicken Meatball) on the right and Cow Liver on the left

Chicken thigh meat on the left and Gyu-tan (Beef Tongue) on the right

Cow thyroid/sweetbread on the right and chicken heart on the left

Chicken cartilage and green peppers

Overall thoughts:

• For beginners we recommend: the tsukune meatball (outside had a nice crispy layer and the middle a firm mixture of chicken), the chicken thigh, and the chicken wings (Ducky's favorite but we ate it too soon and forgot to take a picture)
• For the adventurous we recommend: the liver (super rich organ flavor!), the thyroid (super fatty richness), the beef tongue (firm and superb), the heart (not as intense as liver), and the cartilage (crunchy goodness for Kitty but Ducky does not like)
• Green peppers had a bit of a spicy kick and every bite produced a mouthful of sauce.  
• On average, 2 skewers cost $2-3 which we felt was a bargain compared to back at home where 3 skewers could easily cost $7-8. On a hot summer night like this, grilled skewers is a way to go to quench that sweltering appetite.

Hokkaido soft serve ice cream 

Cream Taiyaki

Halfway through our yakitori dinner we noticed there was a soft serve ice cream shop next door.  So, after dinner we went there right away.  We ordered the soft serve ice cream and also tried their cream taiyaki.  The soft serve was pretty good.  It had a rich milky taste that was refreshing after a long day.  However, due to the heat, it quickly melty and we soon had a drippy mess in our hands.  The taiyaki came out looking like those plastic toys with the extra plastic bits that were not removed properly.  The fish was encased in a plastic box.  We noticed their taiyaki had a cream filling option, and since neither of us were big fans of red bean we opted for that flavor instead. Overall, the ice cream was a good choice for a post dinner dessert and the taiyaki was interesting (perhaps a little too sweet for Ducky).  We've both had better taiyaki elsewhere, but if you are curious its not bad either.

Grape-Apple-Orange juice drink

On our way back home, we just couldn't help but drop by a convenience store to grab something cold to drink.  Ducky chose this Gokuri triple fruit drink.  Grape flavor was definitely the dominate taste with the orange coming in second and barely any apple taste.  It is not too sweet and it is not a soda (not bubbly).  I would recommend this to anyone who wants a fruity drink.  We have decided to make a mission out of finding weird snacks available only in Japan. Cheers to finding some!

Japan Trip 2013 - Day 1

Day 1 of Japan Trip 2013

After a 10 hour flight with funny Japanese dub of Iron Man 3, it was time to get into the heart of Tokyo from Narita Airport.

Budget Tip!
There are a variety of options getting from Narita Airport to Tokyo Station, the main hub of it all:

• JR Pass if purchased previously
• Narita Express + Suica Card Package ($15 for a express train to Tokyo station along with １５００円 worth of train rides)
• Airport Limousine
• Keisei Bus

If you didn't opt for a JR Pass, then we totally recommend the Keisei bus! Only ９００円 per person to Tokyo Station from Narita Airport.  It was about an hour and 20 minute ride, but there was traffic so mileage may vary.

Also, get a Suica card (for SF Bay Area people: an advanced Clipper card that works as a quick pay card at various stores as well) to make our transiting by trains and buses easier.

Finally got situated at our place and decided to explore and find food. We just popped into this Smart Sushi place to stuff our faces mainly because we saw this:

We were pleasantly surprised by an English language option, but anyway: this is the near epitome of minimal human contact. We just ordered what we wanted on the screen and the platters just come right out in a little robotic tray. You press a button and it sends the sushi right back into the kitchen (Soups and drinks do get served by a waiter/waitress though). Like many places, prices are color coded on the plates. 

It was not grand sushi, but it's definitely worth it. Where else are we going to find salmon nigiri for only $1.20? One of the first of many places that proved to us that eating in Japan doesn't have to be expensive.