Tokyo #1: Tempura and Tokyo Tower

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Back in Tokyo! My flight had arrived the previous evening, so I had just made my way to the hostel I was staying at, got some dinner from the convenience store and relaxed in preparation for a busy few days. My friend came to meet me at the hostel and we set off to go to this Michelin starred ramen place that I wanted to try. I forget the name now, but it had only recently got a Michelin star and was ridiculously cheap. We walked to the station and had a good catch up as it had been about six months since we had last seen each other. We got on the subway and my friend had a thought, we should check that the restaurant is open. That turned out to be a good idea as when we checked twitter, the restaurant was closed. The chef was ill or injured. Bugger! There goes my chance of eating at a Michelin starred place. We hopped off the train and on to one heading back in the direction we had come. My friend had a plan. She suggested a couple of places for lunch and I plumped for one of them. We wandered the backstreets of Tokyo and came to the place that I liked the sound of. However, when we got there the queue was really long. Mental note don't travel to Tokyo at the weekend. The place is really tiny, too and only has about ten seats so my friend told me we would wait forever. So we headed to the other place instead.

Kaneko Hannosuke was only a short walk away. This was a tempura place and I really wasn't feeling in the mood for tempura. I wanted something lighter, but had agreed as my friend had said it was really good. There was a huge queue here, too. But this place was bigger, so we should get in there quicker. I think we had to wait about 90 minutes. It is madness, i would never queue or wait that long anywhere else, I am just too impatient. But you have to wait for good food in Japan. This place was efficient though and the waitress took our order while we were outside in the queue. There was a hot water dispenser, so people could get a drink to keep them warm in the queue. Once inside, we were ushered upstairs and shown to our seats. We were sharing a table with a Japanese couple. It didn't take long for our food to arrive. The bowl was absolutely huge. We had ordered some miso soup, too. A couple of bites and I was hooked, so much for not wanting tempura, this stuff was amazing! The bowl was filled with rice and topped with a giant piece of eel, shrimp, some veggies, an egg, and I think some squid. It was so delicious! I was in heaven, yet again another amazing meal in Japan! Only problem was when we left the restaurant, we realised how much our clothes now stunk from the fried food.

From the restaurant we headed in the direction of Tokyo Tower. We first stopped at Zojo-ji temple to look around. It is the Great Main Temple of the Chnzei branch of Jodo-shu Buddhism and was founded by Yuyo Shoso. We had a walk around the temple, there were a few people there, but it wasn't too busy. We went to the main hall to pray and then took a walk around the grounds. It's cool that the Tokyo Tower is so close. I love the contrast of old and new. At one side of the temple, there is a row of small stone children statues representing those that weren't born. I love these statues, but they are so sad all those lives that didn't make it. We walked over to Tokyo Tower, just before the tower there is a nice little path next to a stream lined with trees. The trees were gorgeous, they still had their autumn colours on them and we took a little walk there, so we could enjoy the view.

The ticket for Tokyo Tower was 900 yen. We bought our tickets and joined the queue inside to ride the lift to the observation deck. Tokyo Tower is 332.9 metres high and the second tallest structure in Japan. It is painted red and white so that it complies with air safety regulations. The tower was built in 1958. The main observation deck is at 150 metres and we got off there. You could pay more to go to the higher viewing platform, but we didn't feel like doing that. We walked around the enclosed observation deck, taking in the view of Tokyo below us. It was cool to see the city spread out all around us, when I'd visited in the summer to climb Mount Fuji we had went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings' free observation deck. That had been nice, but since we had been there at night we could really see Tokyo in all its glory. I was so happy when we were at the Tokyo Tower because we got to see Mount Fuji in the distance. I still can't believe I've climbed that and that it wasn't too difficult. The floor of the observation deck has some glass panels so you can feel like you are standing in the air. No thanks! A couple had a good laugh at me refusing to stand on it when my friend tried to tempt me. There was a photo thing where you could get a professional picture taken and they would also take a free one with your phone. We just got the free picture, although the professional one they took was much nice. After a good look around, we took the lift back down. At the bottom, there was another photo opportunity, since the queue was short we joined that and got another picture of us taken.

We had some time before our dinner plans and needed a caffeine fix, so my friend took me to a gorgeous place for coffee and cake, Le Pain Quotidien. This place isn't cheap, but it is really nice and it was nice to relax for a little while. I had a really nice chocolate cake, I hope I can make it back there one day to sample more of their cakes and also some of their savoury brunch items. We headed over to Ginza to meet some friends for dinner. I don't know the name of the place we went to, I wish I did as it was really cute. We had our own private little booth, I think the whole restaurant was done out in this style. I love how private it feels. The restaurant didn't appear to be too big either. This place is well-known for its lamb and we had a lot of it. I was in heaven as I really like lamb, but don't get to eat it very often at all. We got loads of food, my friends just kept ordering more and more meat, which we cooked on the little grill at the centre of our table, it was a bit like Korean BBQ. We also had some beef sushi, which was good. After dinner, we headed back to Asakusa, where I was staying. We wanted to have a coffee somewhere, so we searched for a place. There is a Starbucks but it was rammed. There were a few local independent places, but since it was after nine, all of these were shutting up shop. We ended up in McDonald's, as it was open and served coffee. We had a good laugh about that, but at least they have cheap decentish coffee. We chatted over our coffees and made plans for meeting up the next day.

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Photos

Tempura
Kaneko Hannosuke

Zojo-ji Temple
View from Tokyo Tower

Comments

[Home and Away]

I don't believe that Michelin star, ramen, and rediculaously cheap...
belong in the same sentence! We loved Tokyo other than the food.

[Zephyr]

It's a bit of an oxymoron isn't it?
Hopefully I will get to try a Michelin starred place one day. Glad you enjoyed Tokyo.