26.06.13

Completed my very first week of co-op at Frankie Tomatto's. Although very physically demanding, it is really interesting working here! Will tell you all more, in the mean time, here's MORE on my trip to Tokyo!

Day 4: Kabukicho, Shinjuku National Garden, Ginza

Today is our last full day in Tokyo, so we decided to take it down a notch and enjoy a more quiet day in Tokyo. We started our day by going to Isetan! For those who don't know Isetan is a Japanese department store. It is very popular in Malaysia and I frequently go to the Isetan's in Malaysia so I decided to have a look at the authentic version.

We only managed to check out the food floor. While the food floor in Malaysia is just like your average Japanese grocery store type setting, the food floor in Japan is super fancy with tons of different food counters, selling ready to go food! It is super duper posh, unfortunately I couldn't take photos in the department store. We browsed around and ended up buying this

This is deep fried Hokkaido mash potatoes with panko bread crumbs. This may sound insane but gosh it was DELICIOUS! The fact that the mash potatoes inside were still so smooth after deep frying is just mind blowing! Not to mention since we are not allowed to eat on the food floor, we had to go all the way up to the roof, where there was a beautiful rooftop garden overlooking the city!

Next we walked over to this area called Kabukicho 歌舞伎町. Just a warning for the minors, it's the red-light district area of Tokyo. We didn't go there for that, instead we were told that Takoyaki たこ焼き at Gindako is pretty good! We walked into a bar and ordered 2 types of Takoyaki, one with bonito flakes and takoyaki sauce, the second one is plain with shredded cabbage and dried seaweed over top, with this sweet sour dipping sauce with grated daikon radish in it!

I must say, after years of fantasizing over takoyaki... finally eating takoyaki in Japan was quite a disappointment. I always thought takoyaki would have more of a crunchy chewy texture, instead, it is just a gooey texture in the middle which I'm not a fan of at all. Oh wells, the dream was good while it lasted.

Anyway, we walked over to Shinjuku National Garden 新宿御苑. The admission cost is only 200 yen (Canadian $2 or RM6) but the garden was beautiful! Not to mention if you've been following my blog, you probably notice that I LOVE parks / gardens because I can take photos of beautiful scenery and flowers! We didn't get to walk the entire garden (probably just two thirds) because our legs was super sore but it is definitely a great garden and a lovely place to take you away from all the hectic lifestyle of Tokyo!

Next we went to Ginza 銀座 to try Anpan あんパン at Kimuraya 木村や. We weren't sure what to get because there were so many choices of filling, so we just chose the generic red bean filling with no skin! Anpan is very similar to the red bean buns (tau sar pau) in Malaysia, and so when I ate it I couldn't help but compare. Unfortunately I did not find anpan as delicious as I hoped it would be, it was still a nice experience trying it though.

After some slight window shopping at Ginza, we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building 東京都庁舎 back in Shinjuku! We didn't get to go up the Tokyo Skytree the day before as it was closed due to strong winds, so we made it a point to see the view of Tokyo at this building. What is great about the Tokyo Metropolitan Building is that it is absolutely FREE to go up to their viewing deck! I couldn't help but wish I had a better camera / better photography skills as I couldn't help but keep taking shots with the window reflection in them, but here is my best shot

Tokyo is such a beautiful city and it is even more so when you see it from this height. Oh and on a day with clear skies and when the sun is out, you could even spot Mount Fuji from this building! Cool right!!

For dinner, we headed for shabu-shabu / sukiyaki back at Kabukicho. It is a buffet restaurant called Momo Paradise, unfortunately by the time we got there, they were no longer taking in new customers. We ended up heading back to Shinjuku for dinner. Funny thing was we ate in one restaurant and did not like it at all so we actually went back to the restaurant we went the night before at Shinjuku (open 24 hours!) to have dinner part II. Lookie at the huge clam we ordered!!

After we just head back to our hotel.. and I took a photo of my hotel room!! This room was about $130 Canadian but I felt like a giant for the first time in my life. The washroom is basically big enough to take up to two steps. But the thing about Japan is that they are so organized and neat, and everywhere you go you'll see everyone maximizing the smallest of spaces! I feel so privileged to have the luxury of space!

Images by Me
p.s. address to Momo Paradise is

8F Humax Pavillion

Shinjuku Kabuki-Cho

1-20-1 Kabuki-Cho