Sushizanmai, Ginza, Shinjuku

Sushizanmai - Day Four

After spending a few hours at the motor show we were getting hungry so it was time for a late lunch. We weren't sure when we would have a chance to eat sushi in Japan again so we decided to go back to Sushizanmai. Turns out there are actually three of them within the Tsukiji external market. Two of them are regular sushi restaurants and one of them is a sushi boat. There are also 6 or 7 more locations elsewhere in Tokyo. For the previous lunch we ordered a fixed lunch combo which was actually a little bit too big for us. So this time we decided we wanted to go to a sushi bar and just order the stuff we really liked (none of those weird maki rolls) and not quite so many pieces, either. We ended up ordering a bunch of stuff because it's all so tasty. Tuna (lean & fatty), eel, salmon, octopus, mackeral, shrimp, and a big omelette thing. Fatty tuna is big favorite in Japan. It's quite a bit more expensive than lean tuna (like 3x). To my uncultured palette, the lean tuna in Japan was already so good that the difference between lean & fatty was small and not worth the extra money. Perhaps given more time I would appreciate the difference. If only we had enough time for that! Salmon is always one of my favorites and good salmon sushi tastes like ridiculously good lox. Sophie likes eel while I think it's ok, but not my favorite. Until we tried the eel here. Now I understand the big deal. I've never had eel anywhere near this fresh or delicious. The unagi nigiri is freshly grilled right there for you. The chef has this little grill behind the counter. It's amazingly good stuff. Sitting next to us was a Japanese couple who also seemed to be enjoying themselves. They had this big bowl of crab soup, this big fried fish, crab sushi, and a bunch of other tasty looking stuff. We were eyeing each other's food. While we were munching all the eel, they also ordered some. I was eyeing some of their fish and I think he offered some to me. But I wasn't sure and I didn't want to create an incident by taking some of his food if I misunderstood. Playing dumb seemed like the safest route. Eating at the sushi bar at Sushizanmai was definitely both fun and delicious. Not only was the food tasty, the service is great too. Each chef takes care of about 4 people. When you finish a piece, he asks what you would like next. It's no pressure, it's just great service sushi-on-demand. 16 delicious pieces of sushi and a big egg omelette for only Y2805 (US$26). A fantastic bargain. The best part is my two favorite pieces were actually amongst the cheapest. Salmon was only $1 and eel $1.50. The only problem is now that we've had sushi in Japan, we are going to have to add the cost of airfare to Tokyo next time the craving hits.


At Sushizanmai with our sushi chef



Sushizanmai


Ginza, Shinjuku - Day Four

By now after the motor show and eating another big pile of sushi, we were really tired and needed to rest so we headed back to the hotel. After resting up a bit, we decided we need to check out Ginza since it's one of the more famous parts of Tokyo. By this time it was both raining and many of the stores were closed (they close around 7pm). So we wandered around a little bit and then headed back towards Shinjuku to get some dinner. We hopped on the subway headed for Shinjuku. It was around 8pm which is still rush hour in Tokyo. The subway wasn't too crowded and Sophie managed to find a seat. So we figured this rush hour crowd thing was overhyped. But as we approached Shinjuku station a lot more people hopped on at every station. Pretty soon the subway car looked like a subway on the way to the world's busiest train station during rush hour. It was unbelievably crowded. People were literally squeezed in there. Fortunately almost everybody hopped off at Shinjuku station or we would have almost certainly been trapped on the subway until who knows where. Now that we finally made it, the plan was to find a soba shop in or near Shinjuku station and complete the trilogy of Japanese noodles. Unfortunately, we forgot the subway station is separate from the train station and the shops around the station were closed since it was already 9pm. We wandered aimlessly around the area looking for a place to eat. One interesting thing we stumbled across was a store full of Pingu stuff! Wow!

While everybody likes Pingu, we still needed something to eat. Somehow we ended up in the Lumine building where the basement food court was still open. Unfortunately, the best looking offering here was actually serving Taiwanese food. That seemed silly since we were heading to Taiwan the next day. We noticed there were some more restaurants on the fifth and sixth floors. We figured we had nothing to lose, so we checked those out. Once we got out of the elevator we lost hope since the places looked way too trendy and expensive. But we kept looking and realized several of the places weren't really that expensive and we found a Japanese style spaghetti place that looked both intriguing and reasonably priced. It's not soba, but Japanese spaghetti would still be a tasty noodle dinner -- close enough given it was late and we were tired of looking around. Japanese style spaghetti is its own unique dish, related to Italian style but definitely distinctly different. The noodles are the same, but the sauces and toppings are uniquely Japanese. As we were about to experience this can be a mixed blessing. This restaurant turned out to be a little difficult to order at. The plastic food out front was labelled in Japanese and the menu was Japanese only with no pictures. We picked out the good looking plastic food and tried to find the entries on the menu. I.e., appetizer #X and entree #Y. I ordered some tasty looking deep fried appetizer for Y500 and pasta with crab and cream sauce for Y700. Sophie tried to order a salad but ordered seafood salad by mistake for Y580 and pasta with some Chinese characters for veggies for Y680. The mystery fried appetizer turned out to be karaage chicken -- basically Japanese chicken nuggets. They can be quite tasty and these were with the added twist of some Italian seasonings. Sophie's mistakenly ordered seafood salad also turned out to be delicious. OK, after all that trouble ordering we were doing pretty well so far. Time for the entrees. My pasta with crab and cream sauce was simply outstanding, the best plate of pasta I've had in a long time. Sophie's "veggie" pasta turned out to be some kind of strange seafood with veggie pasta -- we're still not sure. The tomato-y looking things were probably some sort of fish eggs and the sauce was also some strange concoction. It looked gorgeous as the presentation on everything was most attractive. But the taste was "weird beyond description" according to Sophie. It was pretty strange. Each bite would start out tasting good but weird, then turn just weird, and then a different type of weird. It must be an acquired taste. After the main course the dessert tray was brought out and Sophie picked out some cream puffs for Y350. These were also very tasty. I guess the moral of the story is when picking out plastic food, stick to the recognizable items or be prepared for a potential big surprise. Despite the weirdness of Sophie's main course, we'd have to give this place a thumbs up. The food was mostly delicious, the presentation was good, and the service was great. The people were very friendly and polite even though it was obviously difficult for them to be dealing with us. All that for only Y2950 (US$27), a great deal.


Ginza



Ginza



A whole store full of Pingu stuff!



Spaghetti with crab and cream sauce.



Japanese Spaghetti place in the Lumine Building 6th floor.


Shinjuku - Day Five

This was our last morning in Tokyo. Since the weather was nice out and we had some free time, we decided to walk across the street from the Keio Plaza and check out the Tokyo Metro Government Building. Not only is it one of the taller buildings around, the observation deck near the top is free. The view from the top is quite nice. Although still no Mt. Fuji even though it was fairly clear out.

At this point the only major item missing from our checklist was completing the noodle trilogy. We had seen many soba shops but never had a chance to try any. We had about half an hour waiting for the Narita Express in Shinjuku station but Sophie didn't feel like looking for noodles. Once we arrived at the airport and checked in, there was a pretty big food court so we wandered over and found a restaurant that looked pretty good. Their plastic soba certainly looked tasty enough. But Sophie changed her mind and wanted to go through customs and find the departure gate instead even though we thought we had two hours left. So close to soba and yet denied, I was getting a bit cranky at this point. Lucky for our marital bliss, after going through customs we found a fast food counter which served noodles. We ordered the zarusoba (Y500) and kitsune soba (Y650). For a US$10 lunch for two served in an airport, it was pretty darn good -- probably as good as any served in the US. The noodle trilogy completed, we spent our last few yen on some snacks and headed for our gate with less than Y100 ($1) in our pockets.

Once we reached the gate we realized the departure time was half an hour earlier than we thought and the plane was already boarding. Good thing we didn't wait for the later train and stop for non-fast food noodles. The flight to Japan was a fairly bumpy ride due to some turbulence. The return flight would have been mostly pleasant except for the Stinky Foot Crazy Girl. SFCG was sitting right behind us and it seemed like she must wash her socks with a combination of stinky tofu and durian. That was nasty. To top things off as soon as the plane rolled up to the gate, SFCG tried to push her way through 50 rows of people standing in the aisle. All apparently just to stand around and chat on a cellphone once off the plane. Oh well, if we needed a sign we weren't in Japan anymore that certainly fit the bill.


View of the Park Hyatt Tokyo from the Tokyo Metro Government Building. The Hyatt is the setting for Lost in Translation.


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