Japan Trip 2013 - Day 4

Today's adventures involved meeting with dear friends of ours. But of course, Mister Donut comes first before embarking anywhere...

Mochi Puru Puru Peach Pon de Ring

 Today's flavor was definitely delicious. The donut had a jelly like topping as seen on the photo, but it was not mushy gross syrup but actually refreshing peach jelly somehow formed perfectly on top...defying laws and physics of the universe......so definitely a must get flavor

Next we met up with our friends at Shibuya and wandered a bit until we settled down at Sutadonya in Shibuya. We both ordered a Sutadon (thinly sliced pork belly donburi) and a tonjiru, which is a Japanese rich pork based soup with carrots and gobo and konnyaku.

Sutadon + Miso Soup + Egg

Tonjiru

The pork was thinly sliced like shabushabu meat and were nicely seasoned.  The pork was sweet and savory, but not too overly powering.  The dish also came with a raw egg which is traditionally to be cracked on top of the hot rice and mixed. We found that each bowl had a large quantity of rice.  More than 70% of the sutadon was rice.  We can't really complain considering each order was about ６３０円.  The rice was a bit too much and neither one of us could finish it. The tonjiru had a rich hearty taste with bits of pork and Kitty is now determined more than ever to replicate this back home.

Next on our list was to explore Yoyogi Park...especially since it was Sunday and we heard lots of street performers/idols/bands/fashion or cosplay meet up groups gathered then.

Lemongrass Green Tea

Super Green Tea

Lychee Hi-Chew

Before our lovely walk through the park on possibly the hottest day of our trip 31 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit), we stopped by Family Mart for some goodies along the way:

• The Lychee Hi-Chew tasted exactly as expected.  It just tastes like lychee.  They do advertise that they contain fruit juice.  Recommended for lychee lovers.
• The green tea with lemongrass was interesting.  It definitely had a green tea taste, but this was dominated by the citrusy/tart taste of the lemongrass.  Definitely a first for either of us.  The lemongrass taste was very powerful, but not nauseatingly so. 
• The super green tea was a super strong green tea.  The tea taste was very potent, but not bitter.  We both agreed that although it was strong, the super green tea did help keep us feel hydrated and energetic as we walked through the park on such a scorching day.
• Recommend the super green tea only for those who don't mind a strong tea drink.  Lychee Hi-Chew is a good choice for all lychee lovers.  The lemongrass green tea is a good option for people who want a tea with a bit of a tart/citrus taste.

After baking in the heat, we took the train over to Nakano and explored the shopping district. The sweltering heat was still unforgiving so we ducked into a little Japanese dessert shop where it served seasonal traditional treats.

Shirodama Cream Anmitsu

Tropical Kakigori

Calpico Kakigori with Ice Cream and Shirodama

The shirodama cream anmitsu was a very cool and balanced dessert. It included some vanilla ice cream, red bean paste, fruits, clear jelly, and warabimochi (a glutinous cousin of mochi). We usually find red bean desserts to be too sweet, but with all these other ingredients it became a very deilghtful dish. As well as the shaved ice...well definitely can not go wrong with shaved ice! Especially on such a hot day....

After some extensive window shopping, we were back in business for the dinner round. Simply wandering around the shopping district of Nakano right off the train station led us to these alley ways filled with bars, izakayas, restaurants, and yakitori shops. However the place we settled on was Kabura-ya and although they did not see like it, they offered an English menu and was quite accommodating to foreigners.

KushiKatsu (Fried pork and onion)

Syake Harasu Yaki (salmon belly)

Left to right on the black plate: Butabara(Pork belly)x2,
Shihiro (Sweetbreads) x2, Gyu-Tan (Tongue) x2,
Tori negima (Chicken thigh and green onions) x2.
White plate is just a plain salt version of those on the black plate.

Original beef and potato croquette

Shiitake Mushrooms

 Most skewers were ８０円 or １００円 each! Even cheaper than the place at Ueno! Everything was deliciously grilled, and our bellies were full on an average of $10 per person. We definitely recommend this place. Especially if they're willing to pose for a picture in front of their shop when they noticed us taking pictures like this:

 As our friends departed, Kitty wanted to do clothes shopping and on her way she noticed an imagawayaki shop. Taste and texture wise it's like thick little pancake with filling inside. Despite being full we stuffed our faces with these anyway. Because they are amazing Japanese snacks that should not be ignored. Ever.

Imagawayaki in the making with branding!

Maron Cream Filling

White Anko Filling

Banana and chocolate crepe with vanilla ice cream

And on our way home we noticed a crepe shop we kept saying we would try but never did until now. It was very automated: choose what you want, pay for it at a machine, get a ticket, have the crepe handed to you. It wasn't particularly fancy or anything, just your regular old yummy ice cream cake perfectly suitable for face stuffing.

Fancy Yuzu Jelly Cup

Fancy Yuzu Jelly Cup

Usually after dinner we eat fruit.....but since fruit literally costs either an arm or a leg here in Japan...a fruit jelly cup would do. We bought a premium Yuzu Jelly Cup from Quolofune in the basement food market of Seibu next to the Ikebukuro train station last night and decided it to consume it today.

This was hands down the most we have ever paid for a fruit jelly cup.  In the states, we would not have paid more than 50 cents for a fruit cup.  We paid close to 400 円 on this bad boy.  We agreed that it did come in a very nice packaging.  The box is actually folded in a way to open up like a "flower" to reveal the fruit cup inside.  The jelly is nice and sweet with the yuzu citrusy taste permeating the entire jelly cup.  The jelly was so silky smooth and soft that it almost melts in the mouth.  The jelly cup had two full slices of yuzu suspended in the jelly.  However, the yuzu slices were not exactly candied and were quite tart.  Although it was expensive, we both agreed that this was possibly the best fruit cup jelly we have ever had.  Recommend for anyone to try at least once.