An Appetite For All Things Good: Tokyo- the longest post ever

My extremely long post that took me three days to post. Well, it was a good trip though I thought it was a little to rushed. 5 days in Tokyo is definitely not enough. And summer time is not a good time to explore a city on foot in no air-conditioning. sigh.. On the bright side, I got to eat the best sushi I have ever eaten in my whole life (up till now, that is). I have seen and tasted some truly good food (3 days consecutive at Tsukiji market!), and just for that, I am satisfied. heehee. I have lots more to say but for now, I will let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy.

6:30pm, local time, we arrived my Tokyo Narita airport. Welcome to Japan.

And on to our hotel, Park Hotel. I didn't know it is at this ulu pandan place in the CBD, So yeah, it has totally no life at night. We spent our first meal in Japan feasting on take-away bento from the convenience store. ha-ha-ha. Dot. Our hotel room.

At least it has got a fantastic view. Night and morning.

2nd day: This way to Tsukiji Market!

Tsukiji Market. We went too late for the actual auction action though.

My mum looks really happy to eat unagi.

Our unagi set. Unbelievably fresh unagi.

Unagi with rice in green tea (winning favourite!), Unagi with rice, grilled duck with leeks.

Shopping at Shibuya 109. Lunch at Ma Maison.

This totally sucks. Omurice with spinach and tuna. My one meal wasted on lousy food.

Banana toffee pie. Just average.

St Honore with no taste. bleahhh, all looks no substance.

After, we stumbled upon this hidden little gem by the small sign-board hanging outside its window. Rustic, home-made cakes and country-style settings. We, using our superb communicative sign language, manage to get the waitress to serve us one chiffon cake with ice-cream drizzled with caramel, and sweet potato in caramel with sweet potato ice-cream. On a hot summer afternoon, it is a such a pleasure to have a short rest with ice-cream here. Plus they serve amazing caramel sauce.

Dinner! A Japanese waitress introduced us to this noodle place, Muguinbo. Good recommendation.

Udon heaven!

3rd day: After breakfast at Tsukiji fish market, we went to Omotesando. The place is like a classier Harajuku. More wallet-hurting too.

The famous Omotesando Hills. It is this super modern shopping building. Great architecture, great ambience, for great wallet slimming session too.

We went for semi-buffet lunch. Free flow appetizer with cold cream corn soup. My first time for cold cream corn soup and I absolutely love it.

Olive-oil base chicken, cherry tomatoes and lady finger pizza. Good old Italian style, I like.

Pan-fried dory fillet in tomato sauce with grilled zucchini.

Dessert, dense chocolate cake with fresh cream, and lime panna cotta.

After lunch, it was straight down to Akihabara, the largest electrical appliance store in Japan.

Then to Ueno for endless walking and little shopping (cause we lost our way) before finally having dinner at a soba house. Thank god for lovely hand-made soba.

haha, the ginger whitening mask we bought at Lush. It really really works. I had instant whiter skin. Amazing stuff.

4th day: Fishy in Tsukiji market.

Sushi Dai, perhaps the most popular restaurant in Tsukiji. It has the longest queue anyway.

After one bloody hour of waiting, we're in! And it was all worth it. Beautiful, melt-in-your-mouth sushi. Chef's rule: no sauce, whole sushi in at one go. I gladly followed it. Sushi never tasted (and looked) this good. My goodness. The clam on the sushi was even alive and moving. haha, ofcourse I waited for it to stop moving before chomping on it.

The chefs responsible for these little wonders. :D

Headed down to Osenji, our super luxurious ryokan which cost S$500 per person per night, via Otsuki.

Kawaguchiko, the base of Mount Fuji. We could see Mount Fuji from here. It was almost like a palace in the sky, whoo~

Yay, after 2 hours of train ride, we arrived.

The toy train we sat in. Really cute.

Ulu pandan train station. :)

Welcome to Osenji! There is the outdoor private onsen, a tearoom, a dining area, an indoor bath, a changing room and a lovely toilet. My mum thinks the toilet is the best part of the suite.

Peaches as refreshment. God I love peaches in season.

Seichi-somethin. haha, I forgot. That is the name of our room. There are 6 rooms altogether in this ryokan.

Maki-san insisted on wearing the yukata on for me. :D

After onsen at the big bath, dinner, the most awaited event. First we are served sweet sake.

Appetizer. Edamame tofu, sesame tofu and yuba tofu, abalone, anago sushi, sweet potato and fried cracker.

Chawanmushi steamed with mochi. I like the chawanmushi but I don't think the addition of mochi is a good idea.

Sashimi. We had all white fish and one shellfish.

Grilled shisamo.

Corn cream croquette.

This is the best. Stone grilled melt-in-your-mouth wagyu beef.

Second best, boil turtle in rich broth.

Hand-made tenzaru udon.

Porridge cooked in turtle broth.

Dessert, lime pudding on juice soaked pancake with four kinds of fruits. The cherry, by the way, is not the normal variety of glace cherry you see everywhere. If I am not wrong, it should be apple cherry. Wonderful dinner. My stomach almost exploded.

5th day: Breakfast the following morning. A real hearty salad. I don't know if you can call a salad hearty but this salad has got bonito flakes, baby fish, bacon and fried onions. This salad top even the Caesar.

Seasonal fruits. Now I can proudly say I've tried Japan's famous muskmelon. :D I didn't know I was to be served muskmelon until I actually ate it. I was like "this is the sweetest melon I have ever tasted!" It is so wonderfully sickeningly sweet! Mango was great too, sweet yet sour. Just the thing to compliment the overly sweetness of muskmelon.

The main: Grilled sakana, double boiled radish with fatty pork, steamed tamago, pickles, miso soup and gohan (rice)! You know what, I really really like Japanese cuisine.