So, I Married a Tour Guide…
And I Ended Up in Japan…
The Adventure Continues.
(Chapter Two: Tokyo Drift)
I begin to write this article as I sit in the lounge at the Tokyo Hilton, Shinjuku. I’m listening to a live rendition of Moon River and enjoying a dry vodka martini, three olives. I am feeling calm and comfortable, as I did during our stay at our hotel in Lisbon two weeks ago and in Toronto a few days ago. Hotel lounges can be a bastion of the familiar in an otherwise hectic world. This is where I often come to find balance. I find comfort even as my senses and my experiences are either quietly expanded or, in some cases, blown wide open. I’m in Tokyo, and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Isn’t it grand?
Let me start by explaining that my wife and personal tour guide, Kyra, planned this trip. While Japan had always been a bucket-list trip for both of us, the planning was simply beyond my depth. My wife, however, loves to plan, lives to use points or miles to get to and stay in incredible places. On the flight here, we were upgraded to business class, and the Tokyo Hilton upgraded us to a Jr. Suite in honor of our 27th wedding anniversary.
This hotel is excellent; the staff is wonderful (the concierge, Wally, especially so), and the breakfast included in our reservation was delicious every morning of our stay. By the way, this stay, like the others at hotels in other Japanese cities, was booked almost entirely with points. Luxury accommodations at pedestrian prices, yes please.
Aside from some movies and books, all I knew about Tokyo I learned from the late Anthony Bourdain. While his adventures tended to include great food, an abundance of beer, and an affinity for the nightlife, there is one guilty pleasure that he returns to on each trip. Egg salad sandwiches from the convenience store, Lawsons. He calls these “pillows of love.” They are “unnaturally fluffy, insanely delicious, incongruously addictive.”
Well, I just had to try one, or three. I am not one to usually trust anything that comes out of a convenience store refrigerator, and I’d usually want an Imodium at hand at the very least; an ambulance might be a good idea as well.
Still, WWAD (what would Anthony do)? Unfortunately, there was no Lawsons near our hotel, but there were plenty of Family Marts and 7-11 stores, each of which sells these little bits of pillowy goodness. They are simple, just white bread (sans crust) and creamy, no-frills egg salad.
Until I found a Lawsons, I vowed that I would sample the versions at other stores and compare them to Bourdain’s favorite. The Family Mart version was simply delicious (I had two). The bread was soft and fresh, the egg salad was seasoned just right, not too salty or peppery, just the right amount of mayo, a tasty snack. The 7-11 version was also very good, but I found the taste to be a bit on the saltier side. All things being equal, Family Mart is ahead. I’ll find a Lawsons before we leave and make the final comparison then. Stay tuned.
My planner-in-chief scheduled a sake tasting on our first full day in town! Having had a sake tasting about 20 years ago, I was aware there was more to it than the hot version popular at Japanese restaurants, though I like that just fine. I knew there were cold, sparkling, and dry-and-sweet versions, too. What I did not realize was just how wide the variety is.
The Saki Marketplace in Shinjuku seemed to have them all. This four-hour event allowed participants to self-curate their own tasting from the abundant choices in the refrigerator case and the hot selections at the bar. QR codes provided history and notes on each variety.
I should mention that this event was only about $30 USD each, allowed you to bring snacks (enter the 7-11 egg salad sandwich), and included all the sake you could drink (along with plum wine). Four hours and hundreds of saki choices, what could possibly go wrong? Suffice it to say, we both had a great time; we stayed for about two hours and tried a variety of both hot and cold. We each found some favorites and some that we could live without.
Here is a link to the venue, https://share.google/UODmNDvYLWi9awJvW. The excellent staff had a fountain of information. Highly recommended!
My wife wanted to do some shopping, so we went to a couple of stores specializing in travel journaling and washi tape, among other products (The Traveler’s Notebook Store and Itoya), as well as a department store of sorts called Uniqlo. Though I wasn’t keen on shopping, I did end up buying five or six shirts, each for between $9 and $12 USD.
When it was time for lunch, we discovered several restaurants on the store’s top floor. We opted for Kura Sushi, where the sushi is served on a conveyor belt, with self-check-in and touch-screen ordering. For about $21 USD, we enjoyed delicious sushi, miso soup, and a soft drink. Not bad at all.
We found that when we were hungry, the best restaurants were often on a high floor of a building or right beneath our feet, in the basement. Ippudo was no exception. We wanted to have ramen, and Wally knew just the place, right down the block, and right down the stairs.
The soup was simply one of the best things we’ve ever tasted: savory, tender pork and pork belly, mushrooms, and noodles to die for. I used to think I was a gourmand when I added an egg to my Top Ramen back in college (and many times since), but the soft-boiled eggs in the soup were plainly from heaven.
My wife got to wondering: if we got ramen this good at a neighborhood place where the locals eat, what would Michelin-star ramen taste like? For about $24 USD, we had one of the best meals of our lives. Wally did it again!
Our first stay in Tokyo wrapped up on the fourth day (we will be back for a couple of days at the end of the trip, Wally is waiting for us), and we got to explore Tokyo Station before boarding the bullet train to Osaka.
The station is huge, with many restaurants, toy stores, theme stores, and Gashapon. Put a few hundred yen into the gumball machine-like contraption, turn the handle, and out comes anything from keychains and toys to freeze-dried soup. These things can be an obsession, with people collecting sets and limited-edition items.
Kyra checked out several Gashapon locations, including the “Adult Gashapon” store in Tokyo Station. She has quite a collection going now, and I got a couple of model cars myself.
If you are going to Tokyo Station to do anything other than catch a train or a bus, give yourself time to navigate the crowds and look around, especially the area known as “Character Street,” where you can find the Lego Store or stores dedicated to Toy Story and Star Wars.
I write this from the bullet train that we boarded at Tokyo Station. We are on our way to Osaka and some new adventures. Stay tuned for more.
So, I Married a Tour Guide, and I’m very excited about it.
Stay tuned for Chapter 3.
In the meantime, if you would like to become a tour guide, contact ITMI for your adventures to begin.