72+ hours in Tokyo

I’m breaking up my Thoughts of our recent trip to to Japan in three blogs, one for Tokyo, one for Kyoto and one for the Rest of the trip. first up a recap of the Tokyo adventures, in my usual 72 hour guide, just one day longer this time 🙂

Day 1

In a typical me fashion we started off the trip with an amazing Lunch a L’Effervescence. It really was more of a getting table was a pain and the only available time was the lunch wen we arrived so we took the scraps we were given. was it my favorite meal in Tokyo?, no, but it was definitely absolutely wonderful and a great start of the trip

Next stop the Meiji Shrine, which was beautiful and imposing and a great first stop into what were going to be many shrines and temples in the rest of the trip. Bonus points, we got to see a wedding.

Our timing had us being in Japan right in the smack of cherry blossom season. However the cold hit us and that was not meant to be. So we went onto search for cherry blossoms, in the very limited capacity that they were starting to bloom. This led us to the Chinzan-so Gardens where at least some were blooming, and we saw the first ones of the trip

Finishing up the day walking in Ginza, stopping at the Mikimoto store (because i had to go) and the Uniqlo store …

… and having a meal at Ginza Yamashina (which was fabulous if not too much food and too much beef tongue which is not my favorite)

Day 2

Our day started with a day trip to see Mount Fiji from Lake Kawaguchiko. There were Gorgeous views and we were very lucky to see it so clearly as it was cloudy 30 min after. Great tip: the ice cream there was the best we had all trip (and there was a lot of ice cream to be had)

We then walked to the cute little town nearby of Oshino -Hakkai and some some local udon noodles for lunch (by my family, I had rice and 7 eleven snacks, I could do a whole post about how surprisingly not gluten free friendly Japan is)

Post lunch we headed to Akinahaba. It was great to go on a sunday as the street is fully pedestrian, kind of cool to walk through such a big street. The whole concept of the maid cafes in the area had me baffled, but I guess its a thing??

Dinner was at Sushi Yoshida, were we had a wonderful omakase. A lot of weird things tried, including whale, but the quality of the fish was so good, I mean look at that tuna (and yes those tiger prawns were alive in that thing before we ate them)

Day 3

This was a day for Tokyo under the rain. We started off our umbrella adventure in Harakuru, checking out Takeshita street. Some Sanrio and souvenir stops were a must but I have to say my favorite was the store Takenoko. No pictures were allowed but i took this clandestine one at the entrance. So many cool costumes

Then we were off to Shibuya. First up a fabulous Shabu Shabu lunch

Then walking above ….

…..and through Shibuya crossing …

… and finally seeing Nonbei Yokocho (Drunkard’s alley)

Then we were off to Asakusa, walking the market and finishing off in Senso Ji Temple.

After a much needed break and drying off, dinner was another sushi experience at Hakkoku

This is Milt … probably the weirdest thing we ate all trip

Day 4

The day started with Sushi for Breakfast at The Tsukiji Outer Market, and also buying some great knives

Of the shopping done post, some highlights were: Kappabashi for pottery kitchenwares, Ito-Ya for Stationary stuff, Travelers Company for notebooks and Natsuno for Chopsticks.

After taking full advantage of the hotel spa we had pre dinner drinks at Virtu..

we had dinner at Atelier Morimoto XEX with some gorgeous kobe beef. I liked the beef, but I think I would go to a different teppanyaki next time, or at least do a la carte as the menu was very extensive and the star of the show was meat.