I woke a little under the weather this morning, care of Kirin City and poor judgement. Nothing some Neurofen, Pokari Sweat and hot coffee in a can couldn't fix! We finally dragged ourselves out of the room at 10:00am and headed back down to Shinjuku JR station for breakfast. That turned out to be a combination of toast, mashed potato, cold cuts and boiled egg in a cramped (but very popular) little hole in the wall. Not what I expected, but not bad at all!
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| Shinjuku JR station breakfast. Watch out for the croissant. |
In my ignorance I also grabbed a croissant which seemed to have some kind of custard filling. Not so - it was some kind of cheese squeezed in there. Not cool guys.
After breakfast, we jumped on the JR Chuo line out to Nakano to do some shopping for the family along the Happy Road. Here you can find all kinds of tiny shops, selling speciality items, old retro toys, memorabilia, and in the case of kids (and me too let's face it) heaps of cool otaku shit.
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| The entrance to the Happy Road, as seen from the Nakano train platform |
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| Following the Happy Road. Otaku wonders await. |
We wandered around for a few hours, in and around the rabbit-warren of tiny shops, spread over multiple levels. I picked up a couple of cool little things for the kids, and nearly dropped the hammer on an old (vintage?) Donkey Kong Game and Watch split screen. In the end I walked away, but not without a few longing glances back over my shoulder.
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| Sushi Train for lunch. Tuna is their speciality! |
With our initial shopping forays completed, it was high time for lunch and we headed to a sushi train along the main part of the Happy Road. The sushi was super fresh and the place had a unique method of collecting and delivering special orders. In addition to selecting from the normal sushi train, you simply used the touch screen above your head to select special order dishes, and a sushi Shinkansen brought them from the kitchen to your seat.
It was at this stage in proceedings that I made a total tit of myself, mistaking the green tea powder for wasabi and tipping some into my soy. In the end, the nice lady beside me, in a courageous act of selflessness, pointed out what a complete idiot gaijin I was. In the nicest possible way of course :). I think she was just as embarrassed by my stupidity as I was.
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| Gaijin Noob Mistake #1: Don't put tea powder in your Soy like a dufus |
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| The sushi train, and the nice woman who schooled me. |
Anyway, mistake made, I thanked her profusely, used some powder to make some *tea* (to show I'd learnt my lesson), and got back to my nagiri. Turns out that this particular place prided themselves on their tuna, and it was pretty fantastic all told.
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| Tuna was their specialty, and yes - it was pretty great. |
With lunch over we said goodbye to the Happy Road and headed back into Shinjuku to search for a few other things Lucas was after for his family. After a bit of running around Shinjuku's business district, and then several Metro rides later, we finally found ourselves back at hotel N.UT.S with time to change and shower before dinner.
At 7pm we met a bunch of folks in Harajuku - workmates and friends of Richard and Lucas, and Sino - a harley rider from Tokyo and friend of Richard's wife. We initially headed to a small local bar for a quick beer before then re-locating to a nearby Yakitori restaurant.
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| A quick beer before dinner |
Having never been to a specialty Yakitori place before, I was amazed by the variety of offerings on the menu. One particular highlight was a set of cherry tomatoes wrapped in pork and bbq'd in salt. Glorious! Most of the dishes were just as amazing, and we spent a few yours yakking, eating and enjoying a few more beers.
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| Enjoying amazing yakitori |
There was one exception though, a yakitori offering containing the notorious Natto - a fermented bean curd that is very popular in Japan. Truth be told, it tastes like all kinds of shit. I managed to choke down a mouthful, but nothing more. Natto be damned!
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| Natto filled yakitori - tastes like all kinds of shit |
At the end of a great night we caught the JR back to Shinjuku, amazed at how dead the place was. Seems like everything was closing up around 11:30pm. WTF? It certainly put pay to our idea of a night cap. Not sure if it had something to do with the fact that it was Halloween - but that seems like a long shot. Anyway, there were a few young things still wandering around in outrageous costumes which was fun to see.
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| Horrorshow on the streets of Shinjuku |
We finally called it a night and headed back to the room to sack out. We're pickup up the bikes tomorrow, so it's all getting pretty exciting.
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