Tokyo Day 3-Nakameguro, Daikanyama, and Beeru!

I spent the day trolling around Nakameguro and Daikanyama with my Canon and Nikon hanging from my neck. I walked along the meguro river in Nakameguro into Aobadai where I had a delicious lunch set at Aoya.



Aoya is located in a sweet Showa era house tucked away from the street with a lovely narrow garden path to it's wooden sliding door. The only way you know it's there is by a tiny lantern at the entrance. I was really fortunate that the young man who seated me spoke English so he explained the three options on the lunch set after showing me to the counter where I took a seat and I could watch them prepare the meal. The restaurant prepares Kyoto based food, and my choices where a one-plate Kaseki style dish with lots of veggies and a fish, a curry bowl, or a Korean inspired tofu spicy stew. I went with the Korean tofu stew and it was delicious. All the meals come with side dishes, mine had a bowl of 5 grain rice and a salad.





After my meal I headed out and walked some more around Nakameguro, I went to stop in at Nill style/Bonill cafe which is on the corner from Aoya but they were closed, it's one of my favorite stores/cafe.




Then I trekked up a very steep hill into Daikanyama where I saw the Egyptian embassy which is a very strange sight in the middle of Tokyo with all it's gold and Egyptian sphinxes and such. I walked a little fer onto the side streets filled with tiny stores and I went shopping for socks at Kutsushitaya where they carry all the Tabio socks which are made in Japan. I scored, they had 60% off all the winter socks! Then I went into CA4LA (pronounced Kashira), a hats-only store hoping to replace some of my older winter knit hats from here, but alas they were onto spring.




Next stop, Chez Luis, a patisserie, where I had me a sit-down with a cup of tea and a yummy custard filled pastry.

Time to head back to the apartment to relax for a bit before heading out for the evening. On the way back I stopped at the cutest looking take-out window from the restaurant Mahakala which seems to serve squid and chicken dishes including okonomiyaki and chicken sashimi, but the take-out window has a refrigerator filled with yummy puddings and custards in adorable containers. I picked up a matcha flavored pudding for after dinner.

Went home relaxed, then got ready to head over to the Taproom, a beerhall with twenty-something beers on tap, including a really good imperial stout which is what I had, I paired that with a nakameguro burger which was very seasoned and had onion rings inside. They definitely need to learn to make their fries better, they were steak-cut potatoes that were limp and wet with grease, yuck, left those alone. I sketched while I was there, not many people to sketch since it was early only 7pm, but there were interesting faces around including a lot of gaijin (foreigners). Around 8pm I strolled back to my place had my pudding and got to bed by 10pm, I know lame but I'm still jet-lagged.

More pics from the day walking around

AOYA 1-15-10 Aobadai, Nakameguro, Tokyo

Tokyo's obsession with Turquoise

Walking in Nakameguro and Daikanyama I started to notice all the turquoise. Check it out:

Tokyo Day 2-My Apartment and the Scavanger Hunt

Shibuya

I waited to take some pics of my apartment until the morning because in the evening it's slightly depresso because there's only flourescent lighting, but in the morning it's sweet. Although most of the apartment is freezing the tatami mat area is warm because the heating unit is in here and the shower is super hot a big plus in my book. Neighbors are all quiet too, thank god, I thought the screaming baby was going to be a regular, not so.


I'm upstairs you can't see my door it's in the little nook




OMG! So they just stuck a toilet seat ontop of an old Japanese style toilet, thank god!


My block

My first full day in Tokyo started at 3am, yes that early I got a total of 4hrs sleep because of the jet lag. I had to wait until things started opening to get some breakfast and go to the supermarket. I was a little confused when I got outside with my map because although I saw one thing on google street view it was another view in real life, so I decided follow all the folks going to work, they must be headed in the general direction of the train station, turned out I was right. On my walk around the corner I ran into a shrine which is so amazing to have these traditional structures just around the corner. Then I got my bearings and found the supermarket, Life, but it was too early and it was closed and I had no idea what their ours were, it was 9am figure 10am things would open.



I set off to find my breakfast, if nothing was open my next choice would have been the 7 Eleven, they have tons of prepared foods. I found Cafe Doutor open, they're a chain link Starbucks but with tastier and weird food options, they are right by the train station and around the corner from the supermarket. I had a yummy macha latte and a breakfast egg sandwich that had ham, peppers and other veggies. When I went to sit down I realized that there's smoking and non-smoking here and the smoking section is actually and enclosed area and it was the only place with available seating. I sat there for under 5 mins before I saw I women get up from the non-smoking section and I ran for it, I got smoked out!



After the delicious breakfast I headed back the supermarket, and it was still closed and so was the 100 Yen store that I needed to go to, so I just wandered to check out this part of the neighborhood. Lots of neat little eateries, plenty of after-work places to get sake and fried or grilled goodness. In my little wanderings I found a bakery called Transparente, it had mostly savory treats like the one I bought with ham,cheese, and broccoli. The bakery itself was lovely, super designed.





I headed back to Life supermarket and went shopping they have two floors upstairs they have non-food items including cheap clothes. I got the basics including some snacking nori and tofu, I'm sure the bread and the nori have MSG but here you just have to pretend it doesn't exist because it's just part of their cooking. They have an amazing pickle aisle that I know three people who would freak out over it, because they love pickled stuff so much.There meats and fish section are also pretty amazing as well as they pre-prepared foods with bento boxes,sushi bentos, onigiri and much more. I went upstairs to get cleaning supplies, kitchen towels, and other necessities and had no idea you had to pay on each separate floor but the girls at the register forgave my stupid gaijin ways and let it slide this time, at least that's what I got from the miming. Popped into the 100 Yen store (99 cent store equilvalent, except with the exchange rate it $1.22) I bought stuff like clothing dryers,towels, kitchen utensils,and a bunch of other useful things. I was off, back to the apartment to drop off my spoils and eat my lunch which I bought at the supermarket a sandwich pack, that comes with egg salad, potato salad with tomato, and ham&cheese. They're tiny little finger sandwiches.




After lunch I ran into a local drugstore to by some hand soap and paper towels then I took the train into Shibuya which is only two stops on the Tokyu Toyoko line and 120 yen each way. My main goal was to head over to Tokyu hands department store to find a hair-dryer to replace my non-working one, a tea ball, and a few essentials I was missing. I just hung out exploring all the floors in Tokyu Hands, lots of amazing stuff especially in the kitchen section.


Nakameguro train platform


girl at Shibuya station


Tokyu Hands ketchup and mayo lunch pack containers


Tokyu Hands, Ladies facial apparatus', I know it looks like other stuff but it's really for skin toning, Tokyu Hands would NEVER carry naughty things.

I headed back to my neighborhood when I was done around 4:30pm and went back to Life to see if they had a hair-dryer, no dice. So now I have to sit under the heating unit to air dry my hair. Picked up dinner at the 7 Eleven, tuna salad onigiri (riceball) and a variety of soups including little packets of miso which what I had with my onigiri. Watched some more Vampire Diaries and went to sleep at 7:30pm (remember I was awake at 3am), super jet lagged.

A few things I saw on the way home

A scared doggy with dreads


A restaurant with interesting sea creatures for dinner
including this salted shark head .



my dinner

Tokyo Day 1-The marathon

On Narita Express

Yesterday was the day from hell starting with my cab being late to get to the airport, but then I got a little good kharma and there was no one on line at the ticket counter, nor at security. The flight was perfectly acceptable but I was miserable the whole time 14hrs without sleeping and insane cramps, by hour four I was about to jump out of my skin. I watched three movies, four vampire diaries, and played pacman, majong,space invaders and then pretended to sleep.


On JAL flight

After 14 hours of torture, the plane was half an hour late arriving at Narita which meant I was going to have to be a speed demon if I was going to get to the Sakura house check-in by 8pm. Immigration went smooth hardly any gaijin (foreigners) checking in, but my suitcase of course was practically last because out of a massive plane only 13 rows were economy the rest were premium or first class and they get their baggage first, bastards!
Then I raced to the ATM machine and behold my card didn't worked in the HSBC atm, my bank of course, so I tried Citibank, bingo!

Got Money and ran to the JR Narita Express ticket counter on the B1 level, unfortunately the only non-stop to Shinjuku wouldn't arrive for another 40 mins so I had no choice, at this point I've called the Sakura house folks to tell them where I am and to please wait for me and not close the office. Got to Shinjuku station at quarter to 8pm (they close at 8pm) and Shinjuku station is the biggest train station in the world, literally so I had to quickly navigate through the tunnels with a massive suitcase, a giant knapsack filled with camera equipment and my smaller backpack. Finally got outside the west exit and then I have to fight with the tiled streets to get my bag to roll do the street. I made it! 8pm on the dot! Checked-in my credit worked fine which was my other worry. Grabbed a cab, I'm sick to my stomach at this point, haven't slept in 24hrs and haven't eaten in a while. I mimed to the cab driver with my map where I needed to go and after ten minutes of staring at the map he punched the address into the GPS and found my apartment, yay! Now for some more fun, I have to lug a 60lb suitcase up very narrow steep metal staircase. I'm home! It's freezing in the apartment, it takes me about ten minutes to figure out the kanji on the remote for the heating unit it never really warmed the apartment just a small section. I got my futons ready, I went down the street to some vending machine for a bottle of water and another of green tea, then off to the shower and bed.
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Gross chicken teriyaki with unidentifiable sweet things on the upper right.