Continuing from the previous review https://th.readme.me/p/2840

We moved to Tokyo and had 6-7 days to explore, so we took the opportunity to travel to nearby prefectures as well.

Last review was raw whale meat, this review has another one. What kind of meat is it? Stay tuned.

Continuing from the previous episode, we took a train from Osaka to Tokyo. We arrived quite late at night and had already eaten dinner at the station. Cut to the next day.

Table 1

Our first meal in Tokyo, we were abandoned by the guide because our guide was busy. The first area we explored was Harajuku, which is perfect for young people. We won't talk about shopping, let's talk about food. We woke up late, so this is called an afternoon meal. We walked around and ended up at this restaurant: Kyushu Jangara Ramen Harajuku.

The menu is available in Thai and English. It's a choose-your-own-adventure style menu where you select the base drink and then add your desired ingredients. The more ingredients you add, the higher the price, and vice versa.

The seats are available in both single and group options. Single seats come with individual condiments, but I'm hesitant to use them as I don't want to disrespect the chef.

We ordered a small portion first, as we didn't want to waste food and burden our children. As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking, as words fail to describe how delicious both bowls were.

Eat at 2

The team gathered for dinner at Shibuya Station, meeting in front of the Hachiko statue. Everyone found their way there except for me, who walked around in circles for three intersections. Life is good! When it comes to getting lost, just ask me, the guide who is always getting lost. They took me into that building, then out of this one, digesting my afternoon snack on the way to eat giant crab legs. I can't remember which building the restaurant was in anymore.

The menu is here, the dishes are ready.

This restaurant has a touch screen ordering system with an English menu available.

The first menu is cheese fondue with some bread and vegetables.

Second dish, fresh and delicious salad.

The third dish, grilled chicken (we ate a lot of chicken on this trip).

The fourth dish, grilled fish. I don't know what kind of fish it is (besides running out of chickens in the coop, we also ran out of fish in the fishpond).

I don't know what this is called, but it's a sour and spicy curry.

The man walked down the street.

The sixth dish was a giant crab leg, which the guide said tasted like the crab sticks we have at home...huh, really?

The most expensive thing today is the crab stick, oops, I mean the crab leg.

Eat at 3

Today's destination is Mount Fuji. To avoid the crowds, we had to leave early in the morning. Breakfast was simple, eaten on the go. It was delicious, but a little light on the filling.

We took a trip around the lake, taking hundreds of photos but only using a few dozen (sad). Let's get to the food. For our main meal, we stopped at Saiko Iyashi no Sato Nemb, a small village with a restaurant that offers mountain views. We could eat and enjoy the scenery, but since the restaurant with the good view was crowded and we had already been taking in the sights along the way (or maybe we were just really hungry), we decided to go with any restaurant (we just wanted to eat!).

Ended up at this restaurant.

The interior is simple and natural (I'm starting to wonder what kind of food this restaurant serves).

When the menu came, wow, this restaurant is vegetarian.

As someone who doesn't eat vegetables, I'm not sure what I can eat. But hey, I'm here, so let's give it a try. At least I can eat the noodles and broth (it sounds kind of sad).

The first menu, "Carrot Soba", is a delicious soup with no pungent vegetable smell. The tofu skin is also good, and the mushrooms are soft and odorless. Surprisingly, it's edible.

The second menu, "Pumpkin Noodles," features flat noodles with pumpkin as an ingredient.

The third menu, "Curry Noodle Set," is still packed with various vegetables, as usual, but with an added spiciness that is not too overwhelming. It leans more towards being hot, so be careful not to burn your mouth.

Eat at 4

The guide didn't lie to us yesterday. They really do gnaw on fish like that. But today, we were totally scammed.

Back in town, dinner is entrusted to a shop that looks like this, 1 floor, divided into 2 shops.

We concluded that this restaurant is…

Let's take a look at the menu. It's a small plate style of food (taking us to a bar again).

While waiting for the food, I got another snack from the shop I mentioned before. I didn't order it, but I wanted to pay for it. This cup is like sweet and sour pork stir-fry. It's delicious and gone in a flash.

As a food enthusiast, I love to mix and match dishes from different cuisines.

The first menu item, "grilled chicken," comes with both meat and giblets.

The second menu, "Caesar Salad," is not recommended to order in Japan. It's a Western salad.

The third menu, "Crispy Pork Belly," is not greasy or oily. It's delicious.

The fourth menu, "Xiao Long Bao", has a good filling, but be careful when picking it up, or the filling will spill out.

The fifth menu, "battered and fried," I can't remember what vegetables it was, but it was strange to eat it with salt.

The sixth menu item, "Breaded Shrimp," is served with a small cup of salt. Another oddity.

The seventh menu, "Hot Pork Pan", comes out hot and bubbling.

The eighth menu, "Raw Fish," I don't know what kind of fish it is, but the flesh is firm. If it were sliced a little thinner, it would be perfect. This one is quite thick, so when you eat it, you can feel it's raw, raw.

(Well...well...it's good, you know. Raw chicken doesn't smell bad, it doesn't taste fishy. We can eat it, you can eat it too.)

Eat at 5

After the 9 main menus above, let's take a long break and change to eat a single bowl menu with ramen in the Shinjuku area.

The system is a vending machine. We are the planning department.

While waiting, serve with condiments and an outside view.

The text you provided is already in English. Therefore, no translation is required.

The road you see leads to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. You can enjoy a panoramic view of the city from there for free.

The first menu is "Dry ramen set with pork + onsen egg rice".

The second menu, "Tom Yum Ramen with Coconut Milk", imagine that the black color is from roasted chili paste.

The third menu, "Tom Yum Ramen with Clear Broth," is similar to the menu above.

The third menu, "Tom Yum Ramen with Condensed Milk, no Prik Pao", imagines that the red color is chili sauce.

The dessert was pumpkin, taro, charcoal, and coconut milk ice cream (only the pumpkin flavor is real, the rest are made up).

Eat at 6.1

Today we are on another long journey. Our destination is an onsen, crossing 3 prefectures from Tokyo to Fukushima. We left early in the morning and had breakfast in the car. I don't remember the taste, so let's move on.

Along the way, we stopped to pick up some local snacks, perfect for eating during the cold weather. I already reviewed them in the onsen post (let me tell you again).

3 plates of dessert

The dish on "Oshiruko (Azuki beans + Mochi)" feels like our hot red beans.

The bottom left dish, "Konnyaku Miso Yaki (Konnyaku with Miso Sauce)," has a chewy texture similar to konjac noodles, but it comes in a block shape instead. It's bland on its own, but the sauce it's drizzled with adds flavor.

The bottom right dish, "Konnyaku Kudangongo (Konnyaku meatballs with mustard)," is similar to the previous one, but instead of being served on a skewer, it is served as meatballs with mustard. If you dip it in a small amount of mustard, it will be bland, but if you dip it in a large amount, it will be spicy.

The food journey continues with a box of snacks from a souvenir shop for 500 yen. The taste is good.

After finishing the boxed sweets, I went to eat grilled meatballs. Actually, it's the same kon yak as the 3 plates of sweets above, but it's grilled. The taste is the same, but the grilled one is chewier.

Next to it was grilled fish, just like the one we found at the vegetarian ramen village. This time, we got to try it. We gnawed on it together.

Eat at 6.2

Let's get down to the real eating. It was during dinner at the hotel, which was included in the room rate. I've already reviewed it in another post: https://th.readme.me/p/2195

But we'll cut to the chase and tell you again.

There are 12 dishes in total, listed below:

1. appetizer

2. Tofu puffs, which have been around for many meals, don't smell as pungent as Thai tofu. They taste good when eaten cold like this. The green leaves are called Oba.

3. This is also made from tofu, but it has a yogurt-like shape and is bland.

4. Steamed vegetables with soy sauce

5. At first glance, I thought it was a dessert set of "sweet boiled mung beans". In fact, it is still part of the savory dish. It is boiled wheat seeds, which is like eating rice porridge that is not fully cooked. It has a chewy texture.

6. Moving on to meat dishes, for those who don't eat beef, there's a chicken menu. You can eat it raw like that (you've had it before, right?). No... they have small grills for you to grill it.

For those who eat meat, it is served as beef instead.

7. Next to the chicken and beef, we have grilled fish with soy sauce (the meat is like snow fish).

8, 9, and 10 are rice and 2 types of soup.

11. Finally, for the savory dishes, end with a main vegetable (either steamed or boiled).

12. Dessert with a twist: This one takes the cake! The cup holds a delicious tomato mousse that gets even better when chilled.

The accommodation price includes breakfast and dinner, so I would like to show you what the breakfast looks like.

Eat at 7

After a long soak in the onsen, we headed straight into the city for a light meal on the way.

Before returning to our accommodation, we stopped for dinner in Utsunomiya City before entering Tokyo. They say that the famous food is gyoza. Let's try a shop.

Order all dumplings.

Both boiled gyoza

Deep-fried dumplings

Grilled dumplings

Gyoza mayonnaise

"Is it enough?" "No, I'm not full. I'll order more."

Grilled chicken is a must-have.

Followed by fried chicken

Close with stir-fried pork and kimchi

In conclusion, no matter how you cook it, Gyoza is always delicious. Eat at 8

We got ditched by our tour guide again because they had other commitments. So today we're exploring the Ameyoko market on our own. For our first meal, we're having something light.

Walking into the store without looking left or right, I realized that this store takes orders through a vending machine. Do they even know how to do it? I had to call a staff member in the store to help.

Got 1 bowl of rice with pork and egg.

When eating, crack a raw egg into the rice and mix it well. Eat half a bowl. I saw a Japanese person next to me separate the egg white and only mix the egg yolk with the rice. I was wondering if the correct way to eat it is without the egg white... right?

After we finished eating, we went shopping and continued eating.

"Croissant Taiyaki"

Finish with fruit

Eat at 9

We traveled to Odaiba to enjoy the view and have dinner at a nearby mall.

Looking at the sample food, it looks interesting.

Continue to the menu

The first menu item is "Kimchi Fried Pork with Rice Set".

The second menu, "Rice Set + Grilled Mackerel", the meat was a bit dry.

The third menu, "Salmon with Soy Sauce Set", has good meat and delicious sauce.

Menu number four, "Rice set with sweet and sour chicken stir-fry"

Menu number five, "Salty Fish Soup," tastes delicious.

Eat at 10

Today's target is raw fish. I woke up early and headed to the Tsukiji Fish Market. When I arrived at 8:00 am, I found that the market was closed!!! But... the shops were still open. The advantage of the fish market being closed is that there are fewer people. The disadvantage is that you might miss the atmosphere of the market.

Even though we arrived early, the tables were full. We had to wait for a while. While waiting, we enjoyed looking at the signs in front of the shop.

The menu is here, I've been eyeing it up in advance.

The restaurant has 3 floors (if I remember correctly). The first and second floors are arranged with counter tables for single diners to order themselves. I'm sure we'll be able to eat delicious food there. If you want a table for a group, you can ask for help. Groups are invited to the upper floor.

The menu at the small folding table is the same as the one in front of the shop.

Write down what you want to order and how many on this piece of paper.

Ours also ordered with the same. A small observation, the number ordered 1234, they did not put it as a number, but used a dash (can you see it clearly in the picture?). Which they said that when adding orders, it is easier than writing as a number.

While waiting, I got to enjoy some pickled ginger.

Placing the order form at each table is simple: just hang it on a chair at the table.

First set, grilled eel with soy sauce, soft, tender, melts in your mouth. This one I remember, 500 yen, very delicious.

The second set came on a tray. I don't know what kind of fish it was because they just pointed at it. It was delicious.

The third set is still coming in trays.

The last set was fish eggs... I've never had them before, so I don't know what they're supposed to taste like, but the guide said these were saltier than the ones in Fukuoka. (He also said that the ones in Fukuoka are the best, since that's where most of the fish eggs come from.)

The meal cost 15,000+ yen, which was worth the price. We ate it all and wanted to lick the plate clean.

After leaving the shop, we took a short walk around the market. The seafood here is very cheap. It's worth buying, especially salmon. It's so expensive back home. The shellfish also looks delicious, but there's no more room in my stomach.

Eat at 11

From the fish market, we took the subway, which was chaotic above ground. I won't mention the route. We ended up in the Asakusa district, intending to pray at the temple, but the sheer number of tourists made it impossible. We decided to grab a bite to eat instead, just a few small things before dinner.

The last real dinner before saying goodbye to the Land of the Rising Sun, ended with noodles.

This concludes our two-part culinary journey through Japan.