Eat. Eat More. Sleep.

From Asia 2010

Our time in Tokyo felt action-packed, and we spent a lot of it eating. Everytime we saw (or smelt something tasty), we made sure to stop for a bite. This trip was a short sampling of Tokyo, but it was fun nonetheless.

My food memories:

• Ramen with pork belly. We saw this later, but we put money into a machine that printed a ticket of what we wanted. We then handed the ticket to the hostess. Of course it was tasty, it's pork belly.
• Omakase sushi. Best sushi ever. Found out that one of my favorite's, bonito, is only seasonally available, and November is the best time for it. Bonito, otoro, chu-toro, unago (salt water eel), yellow tail snapper, flounder, live clam, fresh shrimp (cooked medium rare), tomago, sea urchin. Felt like we ate all the stuff we saw diving the previous week :)
• Fresh purple potato waffle. Really good despite not sounding so.
• Some more sushi at the Tsujiki fish market. Tiny restaurant with 3 sushi chefs serving 10 people. Would have been the best sushi ever if not for the previous day. Reinforced my belief that you should just look for lines if you don't have a firm recommendation on where to go. Also, it's also pretty convenient if you're by yourself - I skipped ahead in line since there was a spot for just one person.
• Build your own udon bowl. Once again, we looked for a crowded restaurant and got a pleasant surprise. Pick your tempura and then choose which soup/size you want for the udon.
• Food from convenience stores. You can get meals that are heated up in the microwave. Not the best nutritionally, but pretty good considering it's from a 7-11 equivalent.

From Asia 2010

Other memories:

• Flaming Lips/Mew concert. Musically, I like Mew, but Flaming Lips put on a good show. Lots of balloons and confetti. Even better seeing folks in suits jamming out to the music.
• On the walk between the hotel and Shinjuku station, an eyeglass store had set out a station to clean eyeglasses. Great way to get folks to read/listen to your ads.
• Free tissue packets - hand out something useful so people take your advertisements.
• Rule abiding/demure folks. Bikes didn't seem as locked up and everyone was careful to stand on the left of escalators and walk on the right. When you put it in this context, the Flaming Lips show is more interesting culturally.
• Timely trains and lots of good signs/maps in the stations and around tourist attractions.
• Incredibly stylish folks.

From Asia 2010