MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY
Tokyo Trip
Day 7 - October 20 2024
It was a Sunday, so we had to pick where we explored strategically. Some of the districts would be too busy to enjoy if we went on a weekend, so we picked Shinjuku again to see the rest of the district.
After getting off the subway in Shinjuku main station (holy hell is it big!), we started wandering around the downtown area, hitting some shops. They had a 3 story Disney store, which we hit for some more gifts and stuff for us. It had way better items than the stores in the parks. Between the Disney stores and the clothing stores we have been in so far, we are going to be carrying an entire suitcase of extra stuff home. We learned from our Christmas markets in Germany trip last year to pack a big foldable duffel within our suitcases so we could bring extra stuff back, so we followed suit here.
We were hungry pretty quickly and wanted to try a place we had found here that serves beef katsu (breaded and fried meat), but you cook it yourself. It took us a minute to find it since it was located in the basement down some narrow stairs without signage in English, but we made it! It was a small restaurant with 8 bar seats and a few tables. There were huge vents on the ceiling sucking air up to get rid of the smoke from grilling. We were lucky enough to grab the last two seats at the bar before they went on a wait for the day. There’s a small stone grill in front of each seat that they light when you are served your food. We each got a huge plate with the just-barely fried beef, cabbage salad, bowl of rice and barley, grated yam, wasabi, fish roe, miso soup, and a mochi dessert.
This was the most tender beef either of us have ever had. No dramatics, it completely melted in our mouths, no matter how much we seared it. I got lost eating my salad and forgot a couple pieces on the grill and way overcooked them, and they were still so tender. It was a fun experience in the restaurant, too. We were ticked away in a basement, half a block away from the busiest intersection of one of the busiest districts in Tokyo, and we were surrounded by locals in a tiny, cramped space. While eating super delicious food. It was awesome!
For the next couple hours, we just walked around and shopped. Mid-day, we popped into a little bar and got a beer so we could rest our feet. We went into a 6-story arcade where Mike tried out some claw machines. They had claw machines for everything! Even juice!
We went upstairs and he played a round of Street Fighter and got completely destroyed by a local right across the aisle. Arcades and video games are a big deal here, so he was a bit outmatched, but it was cool to walk around. Mike wanted to try a round of Dance Dance Revolution, but the few guys on them did not look like they were going to be stopping any time soon.
Our feet were tired and we were feeling like some nibbles, so we looked up a yakitori place not far away that just opened at 4. Another basement shop! This one, though, you have to duck and shuffle under a concrete wall to get into. This city is so fun.
Since they just opened, we were the first in. We didn’t know prior to coming, but they usually require reservations. But, since we were there for the early bird special, they let us in. Some restaurants here have a very chill, no frills vibe. Others, are all about the fun. This one was clearly the latter. Again, the restaurant only had us and the workers in it, and when we took a seat, everyone yelled a greeting loudly to us. Then, when we ordered our first round of sake and yakitori skewers, and we got our sake, the server waited for us to pour each others sake (it’s custom to never pour your own sake, you pour for the other person’s) so they could all yell Kampai! (Cheers) together as we drank our first shot. It was fun but a little strange without others around. We were hoping it would fill up as we ate so we could see what the atmosphere changed to.
We ended up getting two rounds of food and drink. We got chicken thigh with teriyaki, chicken thigh with spring onion, chicken thigh with plum and shiso sauce, chicken meatball, pork belly, pork and rice patty, shishito peppers, shitake mushrooms, fried potatoes with anchovies (ended up being kinda like Japanese poutine), Japanese pickles, and sake.
The restaurant started to pick up as we were finishing our meal, so we did get to see how loud and fun it got. We would come here again next time and make reservations for late so we could experience it all, but we were thankful to get the experience we did.
The last thing we wanted to do in this district before heading back to the hotel was to see the downtown area at night. There’s a small few-block section called Kabukicho that is the “red light” district of Tokyo. It’s super mild and not seedy at all, but it does attract a ton of nightlife. It was so incredibly packed with people. Between the never-ending neon signs and crowds, it’s overwhelming! Especially because the areas of Tokyo we had seen up until this point had been much tamer and less crowded. We had first considered staying in this area to really immerse ourselves into the madness, but were glad we chose a chill district. If we were only here a couple days, it could be fun. But we have 8 nights in the same place, so this would get old pretty quickly.
Believe it or not, we were still wanting some food (in our defense, yakitori skewers don’t have much food on them and you eat them over a couple hours, so it was really only a snack!), and instead of trying to fight the crowds for a seat down here, we took the subway back to our calm and quiet home base for an okay meal (honestly the first meal that didn’t wow us yet) of pork chashu, a chinese pork and noodle dish, gyoza, and pudding. Pudding and mochi are the two most common desserts here, and the pud was good! 😉