Ochen Priyatna: 2017

Day 3 in Tokyo started on a somewhat bad note? We've been pampered by the high standards of Japanese cuisine that the lacklustre offering of our breakfast choice threw us back. Well, as the saying goes, no sweetness without bitterness and no sun without the rain (?).

we attempted a "random walk-in" to purge ourselves from excessive googling and research for a meal and also to test if indeed, any corner of Tokyo serves great food. Previously, we've had pretty good experiences with this method in Jeju island and Europe. Thought we would try out luck in this little Izakaya since we were craving for Yakitori.

Our poor command of Japanese may have led to this lacklustre meal...nevertheless, the Yakitori served after was decent (gizzard and some random meat?) and I emptied the rice bowl as usual.

After the rather unsatisfying meal, we took a 30min walk from Shibuya over to Meiji shrine to walk off the calories from my bowl of rice. The weather was great as well and before we knew, we arrive at the shrine.

Many of these gates all throughout the Japanese shrines

Of course, we could not miss a photo opportunity with a wall of sake tubs (?)

And with the symmetrical roofs of the shrine

The box that would determine all our fortune

Washing hands at the entrance of the shrine. Watching and learning from locals, we see that most people would wash their hands and mouth before entering the shrine.

Tablets on display with well-wishes. Tablets could be purchased for 5000Yen or ~SG$7

Most parts of the shrine was under repair but otherwise, we notice some similarities amongst the Japanese shrines - you have a amulet place to purchase amulets, a place to tell your fortune, a place for praying, and a tree - for you to hang tablets you purchase. On these tablets, devotees would pen down their well-wishes and blessings.

We spent a good hour and a half within the shrine exploring and touring around before our stomach felt empty. Thankfully, Meiji shrine is located right beside the Harajuku-Shinjuku area so we took a short walk over to find a dining place.

The bridge separating Meiji Shrine and the Harajuku-Shinjuku area

Streets of Shinjuku-Omotesando

Small streets of Omotesando

Omotesando was this cute neighbourhood known for their street style shops - whole bunch of street brands as well as second-hand outlets littered the streets of Omotesando. Interesting to window shop around and take a peep into the growing street culture in Japan.

Interior of the Gyoza shop

Food-wise, we contemplated for a long while as to what to eat - there was the incredibly photogenic Luke's Lobster that was all over instagram but likely not able to fill our tummies, a random Thai food store with al fresco dining and a famous Gyoza shop with bar-table setting that was packed with Angmoh tourists. Eventually, we settled with Gyoza since our tired legs were dying for some rest after all the walking.

the beginning of Oolong highball obsession

Our gyoza meal: round 1. Gyozas were somewhat yummy but not too filling that we ordered 4*6 Gyozas and broke the bank. Pretty affordable considering the amount of tourists around. (We usually assume a positive relationship between the number of foreigners and the price)

Harajuku Gyoza Lou

Location: 6−2−4 Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo (Meiji-Jingumae Station, Chiyoda, Fukutoshin lines)神宮前6-2-4 Shibuya, 東京都〒150-0001Opening Hours: 11:30am – 4:30am (Mon – Sat), 1130am – 10pm (Sun)
Nearest station: Meiji-Jingumae station

an extremely wonky shop at the tail end of Omotesando where I bought a tupperware designed like a packet of fries

Chanced upon a Gindako on our way back and couldn't resist getting one to share

Yumz takoballz why you leave Singapore

Gindaco Harajuku

Address: Japan, 〒150-0001 Tokyo, Shibuya, Jingumae, 1 Chome−14−24, 第5寿和ビル

Opening hours: 11AM-10PM

Nearest Station: Harajuku

Following that was a rather long walk back to Shibuya, dumping our buys in our apartment, before heading out for a meal we wanted to try for a long time - Gyukatsu. Background: I've never been a fan of beef because of its smell but THE GYUKATSU HERE IS AMAZING?!?! Having the raw beef wrapped around light and crispy skin of the katsu batter around...overall an experience for all senses!

Gyukatsu in all its glory, served with a mountain of salad because balanced meal yo. Also featuring a huge bowl of rice which was amazing as usual Japan how you grow your rice?!

For the folks who wouldn't want their beef this raw, there is a teppan in the middle of the table to facilitate cooking. Sizzle sizzle. There is a choice of grated yam to be eaten with your rice - not for the folks who don't like sticky substances and I must say, it's quite an acquired taste that I did not acquire.

Gyukatsu Motomura is a chain selling Gyukatsu with several outlets within Tokyo. Most of these outlets are located in the basements and from our experience, some outlets are visibly more popular since they were located in popular areas whereas the outlet we went to had seats readily available.

Sets are affordably priced:

mini size of 100g at 1100Y (without yam) or 1200Y

regular size of 130g at 1300Y (without yam) or 1400Y

Giant size of 260g at 2100Y (without yam) or 2200Y

Additional 130g Gyukatsu at 800Y so you can decide if you want a refill thereafter. We actually witnessed a petite Japanese girl comfortably finishing the giant sized gyukatsu with two bowl of rice. Gasp.

Gyukatsu Motomura (Shibuya)

Address: Japan, 〒150-0002 Tokyo, Shibuya, 3 Chome−18−10, 大野ビル2号館

Opening hours: 10AM-10PM

Nearest station: Shibuya

With only 3 more days left in Tokyo (we planned a short trip to Hakone for 2D1N) and so many locations left uncovered, we made a calculated decision to skip Disneyland/Sea and allocated more time for exploration/buying magazines/shopping/visiting markets. Best.decision.ever since we explored many more cool neighbourhoods in the days to come!

Day 2 began with a venture into the fast food culture of Japan. Knowing how fast-paced Japan's lifestyle is, the term fast-food seemed to have transcended and assimilate into the daily doings of Japanese. Here in Japan, you find fast-food chains that served food that would otherwise be classified as slow (?) food elsewhere.

So what defines fast-food? A quick google search brings up the ideas of easily prepared processed foods served in snack bars/restaurants as a quick meal/taken away. Now the interesting aspect of Japanese fast food is that it solely serves the 2nd purpose of a quick meal. Meal is prepared with fresh food that could be easily prepared nonetheless.

Interior of Matsuya includes bar-seating and communal seats. In our visit there, we saw salarymen taking their 15-min fuss-free breakfast.

We decided on Matsuya for breakfast seeing that it was located relatively near Shibuya station and a short 10 min walk from our place. We arrived at 10am to only 2-3 customers. A vending machine greeted us and we happily selected our options. I got a regular beef set with an onsen egg added on.

Vending machines to place order. 90% of the menu is in Japanese, but the graphics helps a lot in understanding and navigating the menu.

Sauces and condiments were available on each table, together with a jug of water.

For the outlet we visited, it was only helmed by one dude but he was extremely efficient in his service, be it serving the water or the bowls. We idled around for about 5 minutes fiddling with the water and condiments and our beef bowls were served.

What a fulfilling breakfast!

At this point of time, I'm thinking, I can totally see myself eating this cheap yet filling breakfast everyday! The whole meal, including the add-on onsen egg, cost ~400Yen or about SG$5. Options start as low as 200Yen for a mini beef bowl. This regular beef bowl had so much beef - I think twice as much as a regular Yoshinoya set in Singapore - and the amazing Japanese Pearl rice meant I had to finish the whole bowl. Pity that I only discovered towards the end of the meal, that the wooden apparatus beside the bowl was chilli powder, else, my beef bowl would have been even more amazing.

Matsuya

Address: 2-1 Sakuragaokacho, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0031, Japan

Opening hours: 24 hours

Nearest mrt: Shibuya, but there are lots of outlets!

After a fulfilling breakfast, we crossed the famous Shibuya crossing and took a train down to Yokohama. The itinerary of the day was to visit the cup noodles museum but coincidentally, the Pokemon centre was located in the mall beside it.

Walked pass Pompodour on the way to the Pokemon centre, grabbed some donuts and pastries

Deep fried donut with an ONSEN EGG INSIDE wow

Sub-standard donuts with chocolate that I would not recommend haha

Pompodour

Address: Japan, 〒220-0005 Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama, Nishi Ward, Minamisaiwai, 1−4 相鉄ジョイナス

Opening hours: 10PM - 9PM

Nearest station: Yokohama

Pokemon centre that is just a store in a mall....probably cuz we went there on a Sunday, the place was PACKED with Japanese kids oh ma goodness

Not too huge of Pokemon, especially the newer series, so I just loitered around, while JJ took this amazing shot of sleeping elves (Y)

Pokemon centre
Address: Japan, 〒220-0012 Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama, Nishi Ward, Minatomirai, 2−2−1
Opening hours: 11AM - 8PM
Nearest station: Yokohama

Walking across the bridge, we were greeted by a bunch of buildings and amongst them, the cup noodle museum, which had 3 weird exclamation marks before them. Before you discount the Japanese for having bad grammar - those 3 !!! actually come from the design (grooves) at the upper rim of all Nissan cup noodles. Wowzers.

Admission was about 300Yen per pax. The cup noodle making session has to be reserved separately (timings are restricted) and there is also a cup-noodle experience for kids below 12 where you get to experience being a Nissan cup noodle! (going through the cupping stations, packaging stations etc.) Pretty cool, but you gotta drag a kid along with you to get admitted haha

Cup noodle museum
Address: 2 Chome-3-4 Shinko, Naka Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture 231-0001, Japan
Opening hours: 10AM - 6PM, closed on Tuesdays
Nearest station: Yokohama

The tour starts off with a huge collection of every Nissan cup noodles. The columns are the timelines whereas the rows are the different collection e.g. there is a row just for UFO noodles. I think this panel of noodles actually come at the end of the tour? The tour starts with a video about the origin of Nissin - pretty inspiring and tells the intention of this museum. The video ends with a note calling out to all Japanese to innovate and to welcome failures for without failure, there won't be success.

Here lies a pot of (fake) oil as well as the container which the founder of Nissin, Momofuku Ando, first invented to hold the noodles while frying. He discovered that by frying the noodles, he was able to lengthen the shelf life of noodles and the texture of noodles returned upon hydration.

Momofuku's inspiration and drive arose from the desire to feed Japanese a good meal of noodles post-WWII

Spot any familiar flavours? As Nissin expanded, local flavours were introduced to appeal to the local markets.

The cup noodles experience is located at the top level of the museum, but since I'm neither 12 yr old nor do I have a 12 year old with me, I exited the building to the balcony to enjoy the amazing view of Yokohama bay instead. Couldn't resist taking a touristy shot with this amazing view

One for the record

Another attraction on the same level was the international noodles food court-ish place where noodles from all over the world were sold. Some noodles offered includes Kazakh lagman, Thai tomyum noodles, Indonesia mee goreng, Korean naengmyeon and the original Nissin chicken flavoured cup noodles. Between the two of us, we ordered a naengmyeon, Lagman, original Nissan noodles and tomyum to share. Pretty decent portion and it cost <SG$12 in total!

Happy me with the spiciest offering in the food place - Tom Yum noodles

Then comes the most exciting part of the cup noodles museum - making your own cup noodles! Elsewhere in the world, this activity would have been overpriced but it was pretty affordably priced at 300Yen per cup. We took a time chit that indicated our slot at 3pm (we arrived at ~1pm) and we were greeted with this crowd of fellow cup noodle creators. Forever crowded - but an interesting experience nonetheless!

The journey begin with a vending machine where you are dispensed a plain cup noodle cup. For hygiene purposes, there is a station where staff would place a clear cover over the top to prevent marker ink from getting into the interior. Next step is where the Van Goghs and Picassos flourished.

My artwork

Thereafter, you'd be directed into a queue and you get to 1. choose your toppings, 2. experiencing cupping over the noodles 3. witness the plastic melting over your cup. The above cup already had a plastic layer over it like any other conventional cup noodles. All 3 steps are carried out in a clean room, handled by staff in clean room outfits, but you get to witness the whole process via a glass panel.

Fun (but pretty genius) fact: Nissin covers it's noodles with cups vs dropping the noodles into the cups to prevent the situation of noodles not fitting in the cups - a higher probability of wastage than cupping cups over noodles.

Our toppings. The chick fishcakes were the cutest!!!

Subsequently, there is a station to pack your precious cup noodle into a self-inflated airbag where you can take home. Another ingenious packaging I would say.

Convenient packaging

A museum with a simple message to convey, yet we spent a good 4-5 hours in it. (Including the souvenir shop of course). Thereafter, we were starving from our small servings of noodles during lunch so we headed over to an izakaya near Shibuya for our dinner.

After realising that google only does so much to recommend the Izakayas that we may visit, we just gave up and visited any one that looks decent. Note: it is extremely common for people to smoke in Izakayas so if you detest the smell of cigarettes (like myself), it is highly recommended to avoid izakayas then.

Anyhow, this izakaya had air-con so we decided to give it a try. Pretty localised cuz the menu didn't had a word of English at all. We relied on the posters on the wall showing the top 10 items and pretty much ordered them all hahaha

Our spread - only the first round though...

Definitely the sashimi weren't as fresh as the sushi place we went on the first day, but, the fried goods and beansprouts were pretty decently good. Plus, beer and food were quite affordably priced as well. Can't remember exactly but we spent ~SG$20 and we ordered almost 9/10 of the top 10 items plus a beer, a makgeolli, and 2 high balls.

So what is a highball? Some Japanese concoction whereby Japanese whisky/Shochu (Suntory usually) is added to flavoured soda. Interesting drink but gets you drunk quite quickly considering Shochu has an alcoholic content of 13-20%! No record of the name of this izakaya but it is a hole-in-the-wall establishment near Shibuya 109.

Thereafter, we called it a day as we had plans to visit Meiji shrine the day after and I was still suffering from exhaustion from the red-eye flight. More to come!

Bought my tickets to Tokyo earlier in March and I waited for the longest time for this trip to finally happen! Boarded Thai airways for a rather comfortable 6-7 hours flight from SG-BKK, BKK-TOKYO Narita airport. Weeks before this trip I was already tracking the temperature in Tokyo and it was relatively warm (24-29) so I didn't pack too much for cold weather as well. However, our first day coincided with Typhoon Talim passing through Japan and there was strong winds and rain the whole day. Temperatures also fell to 19 degrees at night which was freezing cold for any regular human being but an extremely enjoyable temperature for me

From Tokyo Narita airport to our accomodations in Shibuya, we took the regular train through Uedo before arriving at Shibuya station. The Tokyo subway is extremely connected and complicated, but thankfully Googlemaps has the latest updates and schedules and is an extremely convenient way of finding the shortest route. Japan being Japan, the train schedules are almost always accurate.

Arriving at Shibuya, we had to cross the famous Shibuya crossing to get to our accommodations. Over the days, we will cross this junction frequently and there were huge crowds EVERY SINGLE TIME. Tourists and locals alike. So I guess it was a good move to convert it into a massive multi-directional crossing altogether.

Our Airbnb accomodation was about 15 minutes walk from the Hachiko statue. Despite our terrible encounter with Airbnb hosts back in Paris, Airbnb was still preferred in Tokyo as hotels had extremely small rooms and were pricey. Our second accommodating in Tokyo was at Hotel Villa Fontaine Mitsukoshimae and the floor space was pathetic for 2 pax.

We were famished despite finishing both inflight meals onboard Thai airways. Our check-in was at 3pm so we were loitering around Shibuya central and I dropped my first Yen on these extremely photogenic fruit mille crepe cakes.

Most cafes in Japan have a policy whereby each patron had to consume one drink at least. Despite ordering one cake, we still needed to purchase one drink each and I got the refillable coffee. A few more cups of coffee later, my 700Yen coffee became rather affordable.

HARBS
Address: Japan, 〒150-8510 Tōkyō-to, Shibuya-ku, 渋谷区Shibuya, 2 Chome−2−21−1
Opening hours: 10AM-9PM
Nearest station: Shibuya

This place is called HARBS - Healthy Carbs?

Since we had a bit more time to spare before we check-in our luggage, we decided to drop by JINS to make a pair of spectacles. JINS is similar to the OWNDAYS concept whereby spectacles are made almost instantly (45-60 min) and prices are hence kept low as well. The concept of low prices are only maintained in Japan though, as seen from the pricey options we have in OWNDAYS in Singapore. Perhaps it may be because OWNDAYS in Japan has other competitors such as JINS and ZOFF as well. Spent a good 30 minutes walking around the shop space of JINS to find the "perfect" pair of spectacles to avoid regret cost but eventually succumbed to a pair of home-wear pink plastic spectacles.

Level 1: Browsing area of JINS Shibuya

Thereafter, you may request for an eye check (inclusive) and depending on the type of glasses you want (plastic vs glass lenses, thick vs thin lens), there are options to top-up from the original cost of the spectacles. I got mine fuss-free and it cost 5000Yen (or roughly SG$60, tax-exclusive as I had tax-free) which is extremely affordable. The spectacles were also aesthetically-pleasing and extremely lightweight.

Cashier and the eye examination area on the left

I was extremely pleased with the quality that I dropped by Zoff to grab another pair of spectacles. In my opinion, Zoff had a greater spread of trendy spectacles and quality was slightly better than JINS. The service at Zoff was lacking slightly but the quality of the spectacles (and case) was a great surprise. Spectacles from Zoff also priced at 5000 Yen.

JINS Shibuya
Address: Japan, 〒150-0042 東京都渋谷区Udagawachō, 31, 宇田川町31番1号
Opening hours: 11AM-9PM
Nearest station: Shibuya

Enough about Japan's amazing spectacles technology, we hopped over to another establishment Japan & Tokyo are known for - Ramen. Thanks to google maps, we were able to identify that there is an Ichiran just a stone's throw away from JINS. (Map details below)

Most of the Ichiran stores in Tokyo are underground and upon entry, you'd first be greeted not by a staff, but by an ordering vending machine. We did a watch-learn-do and followed exactly what the locals before us did. In addition, order chits were also provided to choose for a thicker/thinner soup base, less or more onions or meat. Just check out the amazing space-tracking technology right here

Like any other blog out there, yes, our Ichiran ramen was served from a window and we sat in booths. I wouldn't call this a life-changing experience but it was rather authentic in displaying 1. individualistic culture amongst modern Japanese with the presence of individual booths and 2. the fuss-free dining experience suited for the working class or students to have a quick meal. These characteristics were further enhanced in the remaining days when we dined at the Japanese fast food chains (Matsuya, Yoshinoya).

I'm using the pictures I've taken to recall what I've done on the first day and there is a strange break in terms of the imagery journal - I must have fell asleep when we headed back for a break. Blame my red-eye flight for that haha.

Ichiran Ramen Spain-Saka slope Shibuya
Address: Japan, 〒150-0042 Tōkyō-to, Shibuya-ku, Udagawachō, １３−７コヤスワン
Opening hours: 24 hours!
Nearest station: Shibuya

Our Airbnb was between the Main Street and the street filled with dozens of love hotels. Despite so, the streets are still relatively safe before 10pm. There was a good amount of convenient stores around (family mart, 7-11, etc) and we found this gem while we were searching around on google maps for our dinner place.

The shop had 98% locals and everyone was ordering in Japanese. I blamed myself for not following through with my Japanese lessons and I was illiterate in front of the words-only menu and we could only rely on the random sprinkles of Kanji words to assist our comprehension. Also, our knowledge of basic types of yummy sushi also came into handy.

Shop was rather crammed but who cares when sushi is yummy and affordable

Sushi was yummy and it was our first taste of the fresh sashimi in Japan. Screw the thoughts of raw fish soaked in radiation because these slices of goodness were extremely tasty and melts in your mouth. Cool experience that would change my food options in Singapore forever - I seldom crave for sub-standard Japanese cuisine now haha

Sushi Daidokaya
Address: Japan, 〒150-0043 Tōkyō-to, Shibuya-ku, Dōgenzaka, 2 Chome−2−15−1 ノア道玄坂
Opening hours: 11AM-11PM
Nearest station: Shibuya

We decided to walk off the dinner calories by visiting the one-stop shop for souvenirs - Don Quixote. Have watched so many youtube videos about the wonder of this store and I was exhilarated that the Shibuya outlet was a MEGA one - 6 levels of wacky cool shit. Our buys for the day was small as we didn't want to carry all these shit to Hakone haha

Mega Don Quijote
Location: 28-6 Udagawachō, Shibuya-ku, Tōkyō-to 150-0042, Japan
Opening hours: 24 hours
Nearest station: Shibuya (Shibuya 109 exit)

And just like that, Day 1 in Tokyo ended and now I'm getting an idea of why this Tokyo trip felt so long - we did so much in a day?!?! and we were only getting started on this 8-day vacation in Tokyo...

Ochen Priyatna

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