Which Came first the Chicken or the Serving Bowl?

Keiko our host and guide

Serving platter with the Makoto

Perfect Sushi

Cubed Ginger

Namiki the Sushi Master

Birdland Yakitori

Yakitori

Donburi

The Gods of Jetlag deserted me. I awoke at 3:00am and never fell back asleep. Oh well, have to just push on and enjoy. Keiko, our guide for the day met us after breakfast. We knew her from a previous trip and were looking forward to spending the day with her.

We went shopping visiting many stores, some specializing in food and cooking, others textiles or art. There is a whole complex of stores called: Coredo Muromachi. Three separate buildings filled with restaurants and gourmet delights. There was incredible knife store, and another just devoted to the Japanese soup base: Dashi. I had no idea that there was so many varieties of Dashi.

The major department stores in Japan are a very different experience from the ones in the US. The bottom two floors of most of them are devoted to food. It is amazing to walk around and look at the variety of foods and the prices. It is similar to Harrod’s in London but even more elaborate and expensive. The department stores also sponsor art and craft exhibits.  We spent a lot of time looking at a lacquer ware display. I always thought of lacquer ware as decorative and it was very interesting to see the bowls that are actually used to serve soup and sake. I had no idea of how the wooden vessels over time with use actually become shinier and more beautiful. We didn’t buy any – but are tempted. We did buy a beautiful clay-serving platter that we will definitely use. The artist, Makoto Yamaguchi, was there and it was great to meet him. 

I bought a Japanese SIM card for my iPhone, after I installed it it wouldn’t work, so walked over to the Apple Store where a young tech knew just what to do to make it work. It is a data only SIM card. It is very difficult to buy a SIM card in Japan that is for voice and data. So now I am connected but don’t have any annoying calls. I think it is an improvement.

Keiko took us out for an elaborate Sushi lunch. I would definitely recommend the restaurant: Sushi Ginza Seamon. The sushi was delicious and the owner Namiki is extremely outgoing and warm. An unusual aspect of the restaurant was the ginger served with the Sushi. In the States we always are served thin strips of ginger. Here the ginger was cut in cubes. It was much more intense in flavor and less fibrous. The ginger was an amazing palate cleanser. I assume we could never buy ginger of this quality in the States. We discussed (with Keiko translating) the eternal food question with the sushi master: “Do you add wasabi to the soy sauce or dab the wasabi directly on the sushi”. I thought the correct answer would be: you simply dabbed the wasabi directly on the sushi. According to Namiki, it all depends on the quality of the wasabi. If the wasabi is of the highest quality and freshly grated, apply directly to the sushi, if the wasabi is in anyway inferior (but still good) mix in with the soy sauce to mask its sharpness. Now we all know.

After a full day of walking, shopping, gallery hopping and eating we returned to our hotel, overlooking the Imperial Palace. No Emperor sighting yet. Apparently the actual house they live in (called the Imperial Residence) is hidden from view in the forest of the Palace Grounds. Note to self based upon previous sentence: do the words "Emperor" and "Imperial" come from the same root word - if so why are the spelled so differently? Keiko joined us for a very long happy hour where we exchanged stories of Japan and the US discussing everything from relative housing size (ours are much bigger) to the Japanese alphabet (I still don’t understand it).

I was exhausted from jetlag and was sure I would fall asleep, amazingly, we trudged on had dinner at Birdland in the Ginza.  This is the 3^rd time we have eaten at Birdland, and obviously we like it. It is a Michelin 1 star rated Yakitori Restaurant, that specializes in skewers of Chicken, prepared over special coals. It is a treat. I had 8 courses, each grilled skewer composed of a different part of the chicken. The dinner ends (as all Japanese dinners) with a rice dish. Here they served a donburi of eggs from the chickens served over rice. The restaurant is located in The Ginza, off the street, down some stairs inside a subway stop – very Japanese.

We totally enjoyed the day, it was Los Angeles like weather, perfect for walking the very busy streets of Tokyo.