Asakusa, Akihabara, and Kaiseki

Posted by Chelsie on May 24, 2015 | 6 comments

As we had promised ourselves yesterday, we once again opened the day at the fish market. It was Sunday here and while the inner market and some of the shops in the outer market were closed, there were still enough vendors to throw together a delicious breakfast. My favorite thing was the incredibly juicy ginger pork dumplings one woman was steaming out in the open. They were the size of a large meatball and were served with some kind of mild soy sauce concoction. We went back for multiples. We also had more omelet, this time with grated radish on top which most of us decided we could live without for next time. After snacking, we did some serious knife buying at one of the vendors we had checked out on Saturday. All together, our group bought six knives with Micah and I both taking home a damascus steel sashimi stunner.

In the afternoon we headed over to Asakusa for a tempura lunch and to visit Senso-ji, Tokyo’s oldest Buddhist Temple. The neighborhood was quaint and honest with more Japanese locals than tourists which was a nice change of pace. The buildings were also a lot older and many featured playful and colorful samurai warrior figures protecting the city. We queued in a line that stretched around the corner for a table at a bustling tempura joint known for their ebi tendon (tempura shrimp over rice with sauce). It was a lot of fun getting to sit on the floor on tatami mats and the waitresses didn’t speak any English so ordering was a fun experience with lots of pointing and hand gestures. It mostly worked out well although I can imagine we weren’t their favorite customers of the day.

It was Sunday so the temple was busy (or maybe it’s always busy?). If you look at the pictures you can see how beautiful it is with it’s traditional red and white pagoda-style architecture. The temple has been here since AD 628, but it was rebuilt after being damaged in bombings during WWII.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to drop by Akihabara which is known as “electric town” to see the latest and greatest electronics on display. For some reason they had closed down the large main street so we were able to walk right down the middle and take in the sights. Thousands of people milled about shopping for the latest gadgets and anime. The main highlight was Yodobashi-Akiba, an immense store selling every item you can imagine. It was seven massive floors and it looked like they had taken every item for sale at Amazon.com and put in on display for people to mess around with. We only visited the floor with the cameras of course, but we are going back tomorrow I think so hopefully Andrew can get some photos.

To close off the night, we had the hotel make us reservations at a high-end sushi restaurant nearby. The views were spectacular and as we watched the sun set over Toyko from the 46th floor, we enjoyed an amazing kaiseki meal of around 8 or so courses. Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner that features alternating hot and cold seasonal dishes created by the chef. Highlights for me were the smoky, salty sea snail in course one and the sashimi in course two. Especially noteworthy were the two small shrimp that tasted as if they were somehow magically made of cream. They were unlike any shrimp we had ever eaten and will stick in our minds for a long time to come.