Well its official,
western media is a joke! I hate them.
All the hype about Tokyo in the news back home is rubbish!
I understand there was a huge earthquake and Tsunami in Northern Japan and the lives lost is terrible but from what i can gather there is no concerns in Tokyo. Ive never seen so many people in the one place at the one time. Lights are on, escalators are on, airconditioners are on, there is no shortage of food or water, infact id say ive never seen so much food lol.
Anyways, we got up early this morning as we were so excited at the prospect of seeing Tokyo!!
we walked out the front door of our hotel, crossed the road and went straight into Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast. The hotel we are in is ridiculously well positioned.
We had a few donuts and coffee before heading over to the Takashiyama times square building.
Here we had a look through the Tokyu Hands store as well as a stroll through the famous (and expensive) Takashiyama Department store. This place is upper class let me tell you! They sell the most amazing clothes and accessories but what interested us the most was the basement level. Food, food, and more food, and this isnt the cheap stuff!! only the best fruit and veg, unbelievably fresh seafoods, high grade Wagyu beef, huge assortment of deep fried and tempura, pre cooked meals, bentos, cakes and the list goes on. Unfortunately i got caught with my video camera in here after 1 minute so i wasnt able to take any photos :(
I did have the luxury of trying a few things in here including pickled sharks nose.
Next we were off to the chaotic shinjuku station,
we jumped on the yamanote line and two stops later were in the heart of Shibuya.
I was so excited to see the big screen TVs had been turned back on! this place is amazing!!
We wandered around this crazy part of tokyo for the next couple of hours, there is so much to see and do here and if your into clothes...this is your place!!
We had built up quite an appetite by now so it was time for lunch,
Sarah was keen to try the Japanese KFC whilst I opted for the Famous MOS burger.
The KFC was a little ordinary compared to the Aussie one Sarah tells me.
MOS burger on the other hand was spectacular!! i dont think ive ever had a burger so fresh!!
Although its cheap its a lot classier than McDonalds, not just the ingedients but the way its served to you and the nice indoor setting.
Next we jumped back on the Yamanote and a stop later were in Harajuku!
Another crazy place, probably one of my favourite places in Tokyo!
So many cool shops and some great bargains to be had if your after clothes/shoes.
Harajuku is definately a place for the young and trendy, we saw some of the most crazy fashions here, from pink and purple hair to crazy gothic outfits.
We were lucky to find a Daiso store here (100yen), we spent a good hour in here, they sell everything and its soooo cheap!! not junky stuff like you would expect either.
By now we had built up an appetite! what better place to eat than Harajuku's Crepe corner,
there were so many different crepes on offer and they all looked sooo good, how to choose.....
I ended up going for a Strawberry Cheesecake and Sarah went with a chicken and salad.
These things were the business!!!
By this time it was mid afternoon so we decided we would go back to Shibuya and track down some fishing shops. Lucky for us they were very close to the station, straight across the road from the Hachiko exit actually. We had to get our pics next to the famous dog and its all the more interesting after seeing the movie and reading the story!
We went to Joshuya Jumbo tackle and Sansui specialty shops. These places were amazing, Jumbo had 4 levels of tackle, i have never seen so much gear in all my life. I was in heaven!! I could litterally spend a whole day in this shop, and im not kidding. I could also spend a lot of money! haha, although its a lot cheaper for Japanese tackle than in Australia, there is just so many cool things. It wouldnt be hard to rack up 10k worth of lures. As i didnt have that sorta money to spend i grabbed a few lures, stickers and cool accessories to take home.
Next we went to the 2 different Sansui shops, one of them specialised in Bass and trout whilst the other store was more about seabass and rock fishing. Again so many items of interest.
Although not as big as Joshuya Jumbo this store is really nice and has plenty of specialty items.
I managed to grab some more lures and a nice tackle box here. By now we had so many bags of gear we decided to have a rest and do a spot of people watching. We went straight to Starbucks at Shibuya crossing, 2 x caramel Frapps and upto the 2nd level. We were so lucky to grab a window seat as someone was leaving just as we got upstairs. This was an amazing view of the crossing and the next 1/2 hour was pretty special watching the thousands of people cross on the green light. Its hard to imagine there would be anything like this elsewhere in the world! Tokyo is the best!
Throughout our trip we had been talking about having yakiniku for dinner but as yet hadnt done so. This was the night! we scoped around for places on the way back to our hotel and luckily found a really good place just round the corner.
This is now the best food we have had!!!! Its so hard to pick our favourite food but this surely has to be up there. Not just the food itself but the experience and service was outa this world!
As we were starting to run low on money (this happens when i goto tackle shops lol) we were going to order a few dishes and share rather than going with the full meal set. Once inside and speaking with the very helpful waiter we decided against that and ended up getting the meal set. Although a little more than we wanted to spend it turned out being worth every penny!
We ordered our drinks and before we knew it we had a set of hot coals buring away in the centre of our table! We were soon presented with the following courses:
1 - Beef Tongue
2 - Mixed Korean Vegetables
3 - Beef Loin
4 - 3 Varieties of Kimchi
5 - Beef Rib
6 - Korean Soup with beef and Tofu
7 - Korean Salad
8 - Beef Diaphram
9 - Korean Pancake with Dipping Sauce
10 - Sherbert
Everything we ate was amazing, but i would have to say the beef rib meat was the best ive ever eaten. So marbled and once cooked it just melted in your mouth. Japanese beef is the best in the world i guarantee it. The Korean vegetables were interesting, very different and all nice! The Kimchi was also nice, a bit warm but most of the meal was a little spicy. We had a great time cooking the food on the table and the taste exceeded all expectations! I mean we knew it would be good, no food in Japan isnt good but this was just amazing!
As was the case in many restaurants in Japan we struggled to get through the whole meal.
Its amazing that the Japanese people stay so thin and fit with all this food.
Once finished we waddled our way back to the hotel for a much earned rest.
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