While still not fully adjusted to JST, we still managed to sleep in until about 5:00am. Though not the most energized I have felt in the morning, we got ready and went down to the lobby of the hotel and grabbed a coffee from a fancy machine they had, which made a really good cappuccino. While my dad hung out in the lounge for a bit, I went down to the nearby 7-11 for a quick snack. 7-11 in Japan is a bit different than it is in North America. It has a wide selection of foods and drinks you can get, along with a large assortment of other things you may need, making it better suited for the title of “Convenient Store.” Got back to the hotel lounge with my onigiri and grabbed another coffee. After planning the morning out, my dad and I went down to the famous Tsukiji fish market. A labyrinth of small stalls specializing in their own (usually sea food related) dishes. After trying to orient ourselves a bit, we stopped at a guy serving hot fish soup and grabbed a bowl. Somehow, despite having large pieces of fish cooked in it, it wasn’t very fishy, though it was a very tasty way to start our time in the market. Afterward, we stopped by multiple other places, grabbing a bite at each. Grilled scallops cooked in the shell with a culinary torch, sweet and fluffy egg cubes served with a vanilla bean egg milkshake, fried squid cooked in a savory teriyaki sauce, and some croquettes topped with bonito flakes and spicy salmon eggs. Needless to say, we ended up leaving the market amazed and full. From the variety of cool food served at the closely packed 500 or so stalls.
We then decided to head north of the fish market over to the Imperial Palace, though found out on the way, that the interior of the palace is closed on weekends. Despite that, the 3 large gardens on the grounds of the palace are open to the public. Surrounded by moats and large stone walls, the palace gardens are beautifully covered with a variety of trees and paths to wander about. After taking some photos and making our way through the 3 massive gardens, we decided to walk back to Tokyo Station so I could check out one of the stores for some souvenirs.
At this point, my legs were starting to feel a bit tired. However, this wouldn’t even be half the amount we would walk this day. After grabbing some pokemon related souvenirs, we made our way back to the apartment. On the way however, we stopped at a cafe to grab a coffee, which ended up being the most luxurious coffee I have ever had, topped with coffee ice cream and a sweet rice based syrup. Once I happily drank my dessert coffee, we made a quick stop at our hotel so I could make some notes about the morning and rest my legs for a bit. While typing out some notes, decided to hop on a call with some friends, as this happened one of the times throughout the day where both parties would be awake despite the timezone difference. After the quick break at the hotel, we were back to walking about the city, with the next stop in mind being a Pokemon Cafe a little whiles away. When we got there, it was discovered that the Cafe was completely full, so after some more Pokemon-related shopping, we went out for a drink at a nearby bar.
After ordering a highball for myself and a beer for my dad, sat down for a little bit figuring out where we should go for dinner, deciding to see an area somewhat close to our hotel specializing in Izakayas (Japanese pubs). We finished up our drinks, walked back to the apartment and lounged around for a brief moment before going out once again for dinner, but not before taking a stroll down the major luxury street Ginza is known for. Being the weekend with the streets closed off for cars, the area was flooded with people shopping at some of the most luxury brand stores you can think of.
Once we got to the collection of Izakayas, we decided we would try a couple places, stopping at one for a drink and some food before going to the next. Our first place was a cool open front izakaya, where we got some beers, sausages, and chicken. The process of ordering food here was easy, as we had an iPad with English translations to order from. The same cannot be said about the next place, which also ended up being one of the most fun places so far. When we walked in, the waiter said in English, “For two?” To which I accidentally sealed my fate by instinctively responding in Japanese. The waiter looked at me and asked, “A, nigongo daijoubu?” (tr: Oh, Japanese is okay?), to which I said yes, not fully realizing that would mean the rest of the interactions with the staff would be in fast-paced Japanese. To my surprise, I actually managed to get by reasonably well despite this, getting my dad and I a chicken hot pot to share with some red wine and plum wine to have alongside it. Finally, we walked back to the hotel, clocking in almost 30,000 steps for the day, and crashed before remembering to finish writing up my post for the day (sorry for the delay!). All in all, it’s our busiest day by quite a bit so far, but I’m excited to see if we’ll be able to top it.
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