Flight to Honolulu

Because this is a red eye, probably the smart thing to do would be to skip the meal service and get as much sleep as you can on the six and a half hour flight. That way, you could beat the jet lag and get back to a full day of activity when you land in Hawaii. Yes, that would have been the smart thing, but my 食い意地 (obsession with food?) got the best of me…

Business class light meal service after take off: somen with ginger and sauce, yakitori with pineapple. Coconut ice cream.

Breakfast before landing: French toast with blueberry sauce, fresh fruit, kalua pig omelet. Yum!

This concludes my Babymoon Tokyo 2012 Report. Thanks for bearing with me! I just wanted to record everything so it helps me remember what I did and how I felt on the trip. Hubby and I had a wonderful time and are so glad we had this time together.

Last Dinner in Tokyo

Hawaiian Airlines departs from Haneda Airport around midnight, giving Japan goers time for a full day of sight seeing before heading back to Hawaii. We had our last meal in Tokyo at the airport before boarding our flight.

Haneda Airport’s international terminal is brand new and sparkling clean. They have a beautiful Edo period themed shopping and restaurant promenade on the fourth floor. We chose Hyakuzen, a traditional Japanese restaurant for our last supper.

Bakudan Kakiage Teishoku (¥1890).

Otsukuri (sashimi) Teishoku (¥2500). The side dishes were presented so beautifully.

Good bye Tokyo! We will miss you…

Haykuzen
Haneda Airport International Terminal

Dirt Cheap Eats: Sukiya!

Strapped for cash? Head to Sukiya, where ¥200 will get you breakfast and ¥400 will get you a satisfying lunch. On day 3 for lunch, we found ourselves in Sukiya at Shibuya for lunch. Sukiya is a major national fast food chain specializing in gyu-don (beef bowls). Sukiya and Yoshinoya are kind of like the McDonalds and Burger King of Japan. You can build your own meal by first selecting the desired size of gyu-don, ranging from mini to mega size, and adding on toppings, miso soup, raw egg, and side dishes to your liking. In addition to gyu-don, they also have curry rice, hamburger steak and other entrees.

Hubby got the medium-large sized beef bowl with takana and mentaiko mayo topping (¥480) and a side of macaroni salad (¥40).

I got the mini gyu-don (¥230) and made it a set by adding on tonjiru and raw egg (¥130) and salad (¥100) for a total of ¥460 only!

What a deal!

Breakfast Day 3

Headed out to a morning of sight seeing, we stopped by a nearby cafe for breakfast. Hubby’s cheese dog and caramel latte set (¥620).

My ham, egg and pesto sandwich set (¥430).

Japan’s cafe selections are now largely espresso based, allowing for customization of flavors and soy milk, etc., but the one thing I still find hard to find here is a caffeine free alternative. Decaf is still hard to come by, so I carried my own rooibos tea bags around. But even that level of customization can face some bumps in a culture where efficiency and convenience trump individualization and special dietary requests. I had to laugh when reenacting my ordering scene to hubby who was saving a table for us:

Me (in Japanese): “I’d like the morning set A please”
Cashier: “What drink would you like with your set?”
Me: “May I have a cup of hot water?”
…long pause…
Cashier: “Um, the set only comes with your choice of these drinks (pointing to menu): coffee hot or iced, tea hot or iced, cappuccino, cafe latte”
Me: “So… would I be able to select the hot tea, just without the tea bag?”
….confused silence…
Hoping to buy some sympathy, I volunteer, “I’m pregnant and am trying to limit my caffeine intake”.
Cashier: “Oh, OK…”, looking really unsure

Success!
But listening to the cashier converse with the barista was another funny episode.

Cashier: “One cup of hot water please”
Barista: “What?”
Cashier: “So like a hot tea, but with no tea bag”
Barista: “So should I make tea and remove the tea bag?”
Cashier: Whispering now and glancing towards me “No, she wants just hot water, in a cup…”
Barista: “Oh, all right…”, peering over the counter to catch a glimpse of the weirdo who ordered the hot tea without tea.

With so many millions of people living in this metropolis and navigating such a complex city, I think a certain level of rigidity, conforming to the options provided to you, and following the norms is necessary. It’s what makes the city function so smoothly. Hubby and I enjoyed re/discovering these and other cultural nuances on our trip, and we tried very hard to be good visitors by walking on the “right” side of the subway station, standing on the “left” side of the escalators, and to otherwise not disrupt the pulse of this awesome city. At the same time, we had to laugh at instances like the hot tea, or when I got scoldings from an employee at the art exhibit for stepping 1 step out of the white taped square we were supposed to stand within while waiting for the elevator.

Anyway, after enjoying my delicious breakfast and rooibos tea, we headed to Asakusa to visit the famous temple where once again, we were treated to a view of beautiful cherry blossoms.

A Depa-chika Take-out Dinner

After 2 buffets in one day, I was a bit tired and not too hungry for dinner, so we decided to stay in.

Many Japanese department stores and shopping buildings dedicate the basement level entirely to food. Known as depa-chika (depa for department and chika for the word basement), these bustling marketplaces offer gourmet groceries, an extensive selection of deli and takeout shops, bakeries, patisseries, and famous high end sweets and omiyage brands all crammed in side by side. We walked over to the depa-chika across the street from the hotel to pick out a few things to eat.

In random order: brown rice musubi with salmon and shiso(¥158), Natto roll (¥126), Okowa (seasoned sticky rice, ¥420), marinated mixed mushrooms (¥436), assorted yakitori skewers (¥430), salad (¥402), chicken karaage (¥215), ume shiso chicken katsu (¥189). Mixed vegetable juice (¥108) and strawberry milk (¥120).

A relaxing dinner, a nice hot bath and a comfy bed. What more could I want?

Lunch at Roppongi Hills

After visiting an exhibit at Roppongi Hills in the morning, we met up with Hubby’s cousins for lunch. We had a chance to stroll the Mohri Japanese garden, a beautiful oasis in the middle of the urban architecture. Lucky for us, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom!

Then they took us to a popular Italian restaurant at Roppongi Hills called Mohri Salvatore Cuomo. Delicious salads, pasta, pizza buffet with a drink for only ¥1380 on weekdays! It used to be that everything was more expensive in Japan, but with the high cost of living in Hawaii these days, I think many things are actually a better value in Japan. Tokyo’s dining out scene is so great – reasonably priced, high quality, and with an endless number of options.

Salads…

Spaghetti with bacon and vegetables, penne with tomato sauce, pizza margherita, potato wedges.

Chocolate cake and cassis blueberry jello for dessert.

It was such a lovely day, reconnecting with faraway family. Next month we’ll get to see them in Hawaii again.

Mohri Salvatore Cuomo
Roppongi Hills

Breakfast Day 2

We moved hotels on Sunday to be closer to central Tokyo. The following morning we woke up early and didn’t feel like going out so we had breakfast in our hotel. Shinagawa Prince Hotel’s main buffet restaurant Hapuna is famous for its extravagant buffets, but we opted for the more simpler “Morning Curry Buffet” at Cafe Restaurant 24. Priced at just ¥980 per person, the buffet offers salad, yogurt, fruit cocktail, assorted juices, coffee, tea, minestrone soup, freshly baked breads, and Japanese curry rice. No eggs or breakfast meats, but you could add that on as an option for an additional ¥1020.

I just wanted a simple breakfast of salad, fruit and yogurt

But of course ended up eating a whole lot more… Curry for breakfast? Not bad at all…

Cafe Restaurant 24
Shinagawa Prince Hotel, 1st Flr, East Tower

Shinyokohama Ramen Museum

Now this is my kind of museum. Shinyokohama Ramen Museum is a fun spot dedicated to Japan’s favorite noodle dish, ramen. Ramen lovers can get their fill of some of the country’s most popular ramen and learn about everything ramen related. After you pay admission (¥300) and enter, the first level consists of a souvenir shop and informational displays of everything from the history of ramen, the various styles and components, to the tools used in ramen making.

The two lower levels transport visitors into the historic Showa period, complete with old school shops, telephone booths, and patrolling police officers. A representation of Japan’s best and most famous ramen shops can be found throughout these two levels.
Whatever your favorite style of ramen, you’re sure to find it here, from shoyu ramen from the Kanto area, miso ramen from Hokkaido, tonkotsu from Southern Japan, and even tsukemen. You’ll be given a pamphlet at the entrance mapping out the different shops, as well as a description of each ramen, broken down by genre (shoyu, miso, tonkotsu, etc,), noodle style (thin, thick, straight, curly, etc.) and soup style (kotteri oily or assari light). Each store offers mini bowls so you can enjoy several different stops.

At every store, orders may br placed by purchasing meal tickets at the vending machine, then presenting the ticket to the servers.

Hubby and I went on a tonkotsu (pork bone based soup) lovers course. First up, Toride from Shibuya, Tokyo, by an owner who trained for 13 years in Hakata (the motherland of tonkotsu ramen). Mini ramen (¥550) with the traditional toppings of pickled ginger, takana pickles, and garlic. Tasty, perfectly thin noodles.

Next up, Taihou from Kurume, Fukuoka. Ooooh yeah, this was the winner. It had the distinct stinkiness that I love in my tonkotsu soup. Mini ramen (¥ 550):

Mini black ramen (¥550):

That’s all that we could fit into our tummies in one day, but I could see why they sell annual passes. If I lived around here, I would surely be back every day until I’ve tried every single bowl.

Shinyokohama Ramen Museum website

Breakfast at the Hotel

Sunday morning me, hubby, my sister, her hubby, and mom and dad enjoyed a family breakfast at Kochel, the buffet restaurant at Shinyokohama Prince Hotel. While the restaurant itself lacks in view or ambience, the extensive menu selection and quality more than made up for it.

I started out with some salad, fresh fruits, corn potage soup and congee.

And some scramble eggs, sausage, croissant. Rice, tsukemono, tamagoyaki, bamboo shoots, kamaboko, grated daikon with nametake.

A wonderful start to our first day!

Flight to Tokyo

I didn’t bring a computer on this trip, so all pictures are taken with an iPad, not the best image quality….

I got lucky and was seated in business class – what a treat. Dinner on Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu to Haneda started out with an appetizer of crab and shrimp salad with crispy wonton tacos.

Kabocha bisque

Caesar salad

And my vegetarian entree choice, vegetable Wellington served with tomato sauce.

And a light tea service before landing: salmon pate in pastry, turkey and provolone finger sandwiches, and assorted sweets served with a delicious cup of blossoming tea.

We landed safely in Tokyo last night where we were welcomed by my mom and dad’s smiling faces. We only got a few hours of sleep, but we’re off to breakfast now.