The hotel we stayed in for our 5 days in Tokyo was the Richmond Hotel Shiba in the Minato City region. The hotel was nice enough. Like many Japanese hotel rooms, the space was very tight but it did offer a queen bed, which isn’t easy to find in some parts, and does have a coin laundry you can use, which we learnt AFTER we went for a bit of a stroll one day to find some washing machines 😛
What did we like about the Minato City region?
- It was within walking distance to some iconic landmarks like Tokyo Tower
- It felt less crazy that staying right in the heart of the city, for example where scramble crossing is
- Everything we couldn’t walk to, was a fairly short Uber ride away
- The Hub, which is a British style Pub was within walking distance, which we found ourselves resting at here and there
- Food options are plenty, without being too overwhelming
Our itinerary in Tokyo had us booked in to do our first food tour of our trip. This was the Tokyo After 5 Experience (by Intrepid Urban Adventures). This experience took us to Ginza, to meet our guide and boy, oh boy… Ginza really is a place of it’s own. Think anything branded, expensive and flashy… then upscale it to unbelievable proportions, add shiny, multi-floored buildings lining each side of the streets. You may then be close to seeing something like Ginza. Ben pointed out at the exterior of the buildings were tiled, rather than bricks or blocks, giving them that shininess. Every store is Louis Vutton or Gucci or Chanel, or it has concept cars in the windows for everyone to imagine themselves in. Boutiques, watch shops, fine jewelry, if you are looking to spend some serious dough, head to Ginza and even if you’re not, it is well worth a look.
Our tour guide took us to the bottom floors of a fancy department store and what it held was very impressive. It was an upscale food market, where everything from bento boxes to sushi to intricately made desserts were on show and available for purchase. The sheer amounts and the number of choices there are just make your jaw drop. The Japanese have absolute precision when it comes to presenting their food, this is one of the best places to experience that. We didn’t eat anything from that food market, because it was the very start of our tour and we had a feeling copious amounts were still coming to us. It was more of a chance for our tour guide to point out some different dishes, explain what was traditional and what wasn’t and encourage us to try certain dishes that they really like.
With our tour guide, we did experience the ‘much talked about’ local subway system in Tokyo. It was busy but it was fine, when you are with someone who knows what they are doing. For more on our take on further train trips, see my next blog.
Our first stop on the food tour bought us into an okonomiyaki restaurant and this ended up being one of our favorite culinary experiences. For those who aren’t aware, okonomiyaki is a Japanese style savory pancake, often containing cabbage, meat, seafood then topped with delicious okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese Mayo, seaweed and bonito flakes. In this restaurant, they cooked it on a teppan (basically a flat barbeque) in the middle of your table. We scraped it with little metal spatulas onto our plates and enjoyed the umami, crunch and occasional surprises inside.
After this our tour guide took to the streets, winding and ducking, walking long ways, as they do. We found alleyways that one would never find unless they knew, and finally found a small restaurant with an extremely local feel. It felt tucked away, not fancy but so interesting and the food… well, it just kept coming. Our tour guide ordered… and ordered and then ordered again. Did we know what we were eating all of the time? Um… no, but did we enjoy it… absolutely.
This food tour was great because of the variety of dishes we experienced. There were some other Australian’s on the tour and also a couple from Wales, who we got along with really well, and happened to run into again on the busy streets of Osaka, later in the trip. What are the chances? In a place with this many people, without going ‘all Sheldon’ and crunching numbers, I can tell you they are very slim.
More on Osaka in a later blog… for now, there is still more Tokyo. See PART THREE.
TOP TIP No. 2:
Ben and I aren’t big ‘tour’ people but I have to say that doing a few while you are in Japan is a good idea. It gives you a chance to speak with a local, who speaks decent English and what you learn can really help you as you continue your travels. This one in particular was also good for meeting other travellers. HOW you book your tour is completely up to you, it is quite easy to find them on Klook (the app), or if you have a great travel agent, like we did, ask them for some advice.
Food & Fiction 