MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY
Tokyo Trip
Day 9 - October 22 2024
We are getting to the point in the trip where we start to track how many days/meals we have left to make sure we are prioritizing what we want to do most. What we thought would be most important, such as day trips out of the city, aren’t anymore on this trip. Basically since day one, we have been talking about our next trip back and what we would want it to look like. So, we don’t feel as pressured to spend every second getting as much in as we possibly can, but instead, trying to enjoy ourselves as much as we can.
So far, we have only visited super popular, busy districts. It’s been wild and very cool to be immersed in the hustle and the chaos, but we were hoping to get more time in smaller, more chilled districts, too. So, instead of doing a day trip out of the city as we had initially considered, we jumped on a train to Shimo-Kitazawa. Only 20 minutes away by train, this district had been described by others as artsy, bohemian, and relaxed.
We exited the station into a cute neighborhood! That was the shocking part, that there wasn’t thousands of people and skyscrapers when leaving a train station. We showed up hungry, and the Japanese curry restaurant we had our eye on just opened. They were already full and there was a line (they opened at noon and we arrived at 12:01), but most people eat very quickly here- a table typically turns within 20 minutes- so we decided to stay. They took our order in line, so the food would be ready for us soon after seating. Within 20 minutes, we were seated and 5 minutes later, our food arrived. Efficiency is a strong suit in this country for sure. Mike got the mushroom curry (only available on weekdays) and I got the special curry with chicken, beef, and veggies. They were both super delicious and the space was so cute!
After lunch, we just wandered. We hit a super artsy fartsy mall. There were tons and tons of vintage and second hand stores here. We stopped by a coffee shop to get some drinks and an affogato. It was a really relaxing time in a very laid back district which was a nice change.
Not quite done with the day, we took the train to Kichijoji, another outskirts district. Just outside of the station is a large covered mall, where we got some tonkatsu (pork) ramen at Ichiran, a Japanese chain. It’s very popular here and we wanted to give it a try. There aren’t tables, more like separated cubicles with a bar stool all lined up in a row. You order at the kiosk and get a ticket. You sit at an open cubicle with a divider on each side for privacy. There was not two open seats next to each other, so Mike and I sat with a person between us. In front of you when seated is a curtain. On the bar table is a pen and a paper, one side is in Japanese and the other is in English. You indicate your specifications on your ramen. For example, how rich you want the broth, how well done you want the noodles, if you want garlic or spice added. Then, a worker raises the curtain and takes your ticket and sheet and lowers the curtain. 5 minutes later, they raise the curtain, slide over the ramen, and close the curtain again. The ramen was very good for what we have found in the US (I prefer an amazing place we found in Portland for this type of ramen), but I didn’t think it was as good as the other ramen we have had on the trip.
We may have made a planning mistake and not verified what we had previously marked on our planning map for this district. To avoid getting into specifics, we walked 20 minutes to a completely random area of town, likely what Google selects as the “center” of town. However, it ended up being a very cool walk. We walked by a couple temples and were able to wander through neighborhoods and see actual houses instead of skyscraper apartments, school kids walking home with their friends, people riding their bikes home in their work suits, normal life. Which sounds weird, but in these gigantic and super crowded districts, it’s hard to tell what anyone is doing, but in the “suburbs” (still big city for our standards), things feel more…normal? I’m blabbering, but it was cool to see this side of the city and we would not have had we not gotten lost-ish.
Many train stations have malls attached to them. But, this one had a huge grocery store! All we have seen in the bigger districts are convenience stores with ready-made food, like what we have been eating in the mornings before anything opens. We walked past fresh seafood, meats, vegetables and fruit, bakeries, areas to buy fresh dumplings and buns, you name it. We could have spent an hour. We bought some random cookies and maybe fudge? Not totally sure, but it looked fun. We got a strawberry and cream sandwich, a fruit tart, and mike got shrimp and pork dumplings and a steamed bun.
We got back to the hotel to relax for an hour or so until we were ready for dinner (all the food we got at the station was put in the fridge to eat later). The original plan was to do some standing sushi – just a sushi bar you stand at, no seats, so it’s meant as a casual quick bite- and yakitori. But, Mike wasn’t really feeling sushi and when we walked to the yakitori place, we learned you need reservations so it was back to the drawing board. We wanted to try a katsu curry (panko breaded and fried pork with Japanese curry) and found a place nearby, so we walked there. Once we sat down, the server let us know they were out of the curry. Oh well, we got the katsu without the curry. The portions, as always, were huge (the sizes of meals are often bigger than the US, but leftovers is not a thing, so it’s expected you eat the whole meal, which is just insane for a population that are all tiny) and all of it was very good. However, oddly enough, we both preferred the katsu we got at the restaurant in the mall a few days back.
Bonus story: We got on the elevator. We are on the 12th floor, the top floor. When we get on from the lobby, there is already a couple in the elevator. They had selected floor 10, Mike selected floor 12. Another older gentleman had been behind us and had come out of the smoking room as we were walking into the lobby. He got into the elevator with us. Mike motioned to the floor numbers so he could push the button for the man, but he indicated he was OK with the selection already. Stay with me. We get to floor 10, the couple that was in there first gets out, a woman walks in-from floor 10. And starts talking to the man…Then they get off at floor 12 and both go into the same room. We just stared at each other, convinced there’s a glitch in the matrix. The chances that with the other 2 groups in the elevator, both 10 and 12 would be selected for him…? Why is she on a different floor and did he text her that he was coming up right then?? Too many questions we will never know. I like to think it’s a top secret FBI mission.