tokyo report - food

I have blogged about visiting this restaurant before, it IS a truly Japanese only experience and it was high on my list to go back to. As with all restaurants, for a first time visit, it can be hit and miss, so we didn't want to waste a dinner on an average meal, so we scheduled each night a favourite place. This is on the very top. We sat again, in front of the chef, and we were the only customers. The menu is laid out above, handwritten on washi paper....as each dish was placed in front, we went through it in the menu....

..appetiser was as follows starting with the spoon and going clockwise, yuba - the skin of tofu, with a sauce, sea urchin - which I cant eat, spinach with tofu, soft and skinned eggplant, renkon or lotus root.....beautiful mix of crunchy and soft, sweet and salty, slippery and dry....tonight has an Autumn theme, using the most ripe and fresh ingredients...
followed by very big and meaty soya beans or edamade...
...very slightly flavoured soup with the famous matsutake mushroom (the one that can cost upwards of $100 for one mushroom....), included, fillet of barracuda, which was skillfully prepared in front of us. See top photo and notice the spear in the eye to give stability while he fillets the fish....
...preparing the next dish of the most amazing sashimi...
...this is how you prepare fresh wasabi....when I lived in Shimane, it grew wild on the side of the road.....
...there it is in the front, green and rich. I have never eaten the crispy garlic with sashimi but the flavour and texture contrast was just amazing.....
this is the small area he makes his magic...
this basket contained, 2 kinds of grilled fish, more matsutake mushroom, chestnut, ginko nuts and small kind of lime, all served on seasonal foliage...this was my favourite dish.....it was hard to choose!!!
next dish...grilled chicken with a miso paste sauce and small grilled veges which taste a bit like capsicums..
another incredible soup dish containing a slow cooked sweet mackerel, mushrooms, a kind of tofu make with flour, beautiful and delicate...
This was a beautiful noodle dish again with matsutake mushrooms, fish and green herbs....
the second last dish was fresh fruit of nashi pear and persimmon....
crunchy and sweet.....
followed by the last dish....I couldn't fit it all in...but I did try...it is made from sweet potato and inside has sweet red bean paste and a chestnut in the middle. It is very sweet and beautiful served with bitter green tea. The dusting of cinnamon not only smelled beautiful but tasted amazing
.....incredible!! This is truly a Tokyo secret! If you are going to Tokyo and you want the details let me know. This kind of food and the service around it is totally Japanese and totally unforgettable!!

delayed - tokyo report 1

Tokyo is a shoppers paradise, not only for its never ending supply of stuff to buy but the beautiful and clever way things are advertised, marketed and displayed...the icebergs created above are simply styrene foam......clever and breathtaking....a beautiful window display
the always familiar subway symbols, don't let the simplicity trick you, even after a couple of years using the Tokyo system, we still managed to get lost at Shinjuku station.....Its easy to forget the confusion you often feel when faced with non stop torrents of people that swell in and outside of the station....peak hour at Flinders Street feels like a little country town by comparison...
I love the illustration style of many, many signs, it is always so refreshing to see loose texts, little drawings and cute characters...Tokyoites are very accepting of colourful and pretty signs that send the message and that are well outside of the standard text list that we come to expect from signage and advertising here in Australia...I also notice how very seasonal signage is, even the biggest of chain stores have different illustrations and signs to advertise their latest gear.....
my favourite colours, this is for a very, very upmarket department store.....of course the standard LOFT, Tokyu hands and MUJI are always beautifully displayed but hopelessley overblogged....I did shop there of course, I LOVE those shops!! I love how in every store even the tape that is used on your purchase bag has a small illustration or thankyou message. It was a treat to return to Tokyo. It did rain, a lot, and the one pair of shoes I took with me took a hiding. Again I love the style of Tokyo peoples, rain hail or shine, they look so cleverly styled, beautiful objects, bags, umbrellas, rain boots......sorry for my delay, the next and final impression is of the food. Because I have spent a number of years in Japan, the funny things that I first noticed don't seems so funny or unusual any more, I found I didn't take photos of any of those things this time around....also, for the first time, we left Mooey with my parents. It was wonderful to have some time to be late, have a few extra beers if we wanted to and wander aimlessly... but this joy only lasted a couple of days, when a huge hole started to open up in my heart....it got bigger each day until I was left alone in Tokyo, my husband had moved onto the next country, my son was at home with my parents, my family and friends in Oz and I was by myself in a hotel room. I have not felt such depths of loneliness in a long time.......This was followed by a very long flight home...such joy to come home and see Mooey. What a wonderful trip!!

tokyo report

I have been back from Tokyo for a week and it was just so much fun! This is my last snapshot of the rice fields leaving Narita. It was wonderful to go back to a very familiar place, visit old haunts, see lovely people who don't change (who just get better) and eat and shop myself silly and experience real rain again!! Of course, returning home to Oz was ever so sweet to see my darling little moo who coped beautifully while we were away (mostly because of my awesome family effort, thankyou xxx).....more photos and sweet memories to share after I process my photos!!