It started off with a deal we couldn't pass up. Our friend Jason posted that Singapore Airlines was selling round trip tickets from LA to Tokyo for $600. After having traveled to Europe on our last two international trips, we were long overdue for a trip to Asia. Taiwan and Hong Kong would have to wait. We ended up booking right in time to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, which also happened to be our 3rd wedding anniversary.
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While taking a bus into the city, what stood out to me was how immensely large and dense Tokyo was. While New York city looked upward to expand, Tokyo expanded outward in impressive fashion. Every district had it’s own mini Times Square and everywhere you turned there were huge crowds of people rushing to get to their destinations. We ended up staying in the Shibuya district which is famous for it’s street crossing. The masses of humanity that gather between each crossing is really mind boggling.
The Japanese people were unfailingly kind to us during our trip. We tried our best not to be obnoxious tourists and were rewarded time after time with polite and helpful interactions. The service industry is just on another level in Japan. The attention to detail from even the lowest paid worker impressed me. From the taxi driver who wore a suit with white gloves to the bus driver who loaded all of our luggage based on where we were going. These interactions started to rewire my brain in such a short period of time that coming back to America was a bit jarring.
The Meiji Shrine is located between the Shibuya and Shinjuku districts and provides a retreat from the chaos of the city. Shinto and Buddhism are two of the main religions in Japanese culture. A tour guide attempted to explained to us the religious complexities by saying that Japanese people go to a Shinto Shrine to be married and a Buddhist temple for funerals. We were lucky enough to run into a wedding ceremony during our visit to the Shrine.
If we’re being completely honest, we were visiting Tokyo more for the food than the sightseeing. Our first meal was an 8am ramen rendezvous. Ichiran gave us our first taste of how delicious ramen could really get. It also gave us our first test on using a ramen ticket machine. Ichiran passed with flying colors, and so did we.
Some of the best restaurants in Japan are located in subway stations.
Umegaoka Sushi, located in Shibuya Station, was our choice for lunch. When we finally found our way to the front of the restaurant, we were greeted by a line that snaked down the hall. We took a number and ended up waiting for an hour and a half for our first taste of Japanese sushi. The Otoro (fatty tuna) was mind blowing so I’m glad I had ordered two pieces. It was the first and last piece of nigiri I ate during that meal.
Over the course of the next few days, we began branching out from our home district of Shibuya. Below Tokyo Station, there’s a row of popular ramen restaurants. Yvonne and I hopped in the longest line (must be good right?) and waited for the restaurant to open. Lucky for us, we wandered into one of the best ramen restaurants in Tokyo. Rokurinsha has been well documented as having an excellent bowl of Tsukemen ramen.
Tsukemen Ramen is dipping ramen, which I affectionately refer to as Japanese gravy.
The broth was amazing and the noodles were fat and perfectly al dente. Slurping up our noodles, we finished our bowls in record time. As my wife later wrote on Instagram, “the noodle-shaped hole in my heart is getting filled, one bowl at a time.”
The world famous fish market was closed during the first half of our trip because of Golden Week. Thankfully, we were able to squeeze in a visit on our last day in Japan. Turret trucks speed through the streets at a dizzying interval and you have to make sure not to get in the way. In just a few short months, the market is will be moving locations to a new site in the Toyosu district of Tokyo’s Koto Ward.
There are a few sushi shops within the fish market, the most famous being Sushi Dai. We woke up at 2:30am and took a taxi in to make sure line up by 3:15am. We were 10th in line for a 12 seat restaurant so we just lucked out. The restaurant itself opens at 5am and if you get there late, you could be looking at a 3 hour wait.
Our master sushi chef spoke multiple languages and had a wicked sense of humor. The whole restaurant was laid back and jovial. Everyone was happy to be there, even at 5am in the morning. We did the ¥4,000 omakase and it was easily the best sushi I’ve ever had. The chef made sure to tell us which nigiri pieces were already sauced and which ones weren’t. He also recommended eating each piece in one bite. When it came time for the clam nigiri, he made sure to let us know it was still alive. Yvonne’s piece ended up wiggling it’s way off the sushi rice until she managed to wrangle it back on.
Click through for part II of our trip to Kyoto and Osaka.
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