Fantastic Foodie Tour

Yesterday was a food tour in Shibuya. Lauren (an American who has lived in Japan for 20 years) took us to five different small restaurants in the busiest section of Tokyo--Shibuya. It was like being on Michigan Avenue in Chicago at Christmas times 100. Pictures don't do it justice.

Hachi-ko, loyal and faithful dog

Scramble Intersection

Each restaurant specializes in a specific type of Japanese food and offered a selection, rather like Japanese "tapas." At evenings end, we were stuffed. There were six of us on the tour plus Lauren and Tashi, a soon to be guide. A nice sized group for asking questions. We were a father and son from Singapore, a couple from Bristol, England and us.

Loved that Sushi

Osaka and Hiroshima styles

Kobe Beef--oh yeah!

Squid Balls, for me yum, not so much for Cindy

The tour took about three hours and ended in the basement of Tokyu Department store for dessert. What a crowded store!

Kroger would love this crowd!

Red Bean Pastry

Lauren & Dennis

Afterward we walked around a bit by ourselves, got on the subway and headed back to our hotel for a brandy before bed.

Today we had our own tour, one that included shopping (OMB) and sake. We started with lunch at a small restaurant in Asakusa that seated 16. We both had pork but fixed in two different ways and both were fantastic.

Cheers!

Those chopsticks work too well.

Nearby is one of the most famous temples in Tokyo so we wandered over to take a look. It was very crowded. There was incense burning that you could waft on to yourself to cleanse yourself of sin. We wafted quite a bit of smoke.

On the way to the temple we stopped to...

Sensoji Temple

Waft and Cleanse

Cleanse and Waft

Love those Kimonos

Finally we tried to go to the Sake Bar that Cindy had found that had tastings. This was our second attempt. Nope, still not open. She had it in her head that she wanted to try Tedorigawa Yoshida Sake. She saw a documentary on Netflix-- The Birth of Sake. I was there too but I think my snoring might have drowned out the sound so I missed part of it. Yesterday we bought two woodcut prints at a shop nearby. The owner of Mokuhankan was a Canadian. We were right across the street from his shop so she decided it wouldn't hurt to ask him if he knew where we might try some sake. He was still open and had an assistant so he asked her to stay while he took us to a place that specialized in sake! He walked us down the street and around a corner or two, explained in Japanese to the host what we wanted. Refused to accept a drink or gratuity and went back to his shop. That's the Tokyo we've experienced!

A flight of three

Cheers!

Two flights of Sake later, edamame, Japanese fried chicken, and finally a small pitcher of Tedorigawa and we were set!

Tedorigawa!

Luckily I (Dennis) stayed awake all the way home on the subway!

Tomorrow our final excursion takes us back to Narita International Airport for the flight back to Chicago. It's hard to believe our six week adventure is over. In some respects, it seems a long time ago that we arrived in Saigon. In others, we just left Chicago. Our memories of our experiences and the people we've met will last the rest of our lives and through the pictures that Cindy has taken, we can relive them AGAIN. My love and thanks to her for all her planning and patience. Thanks also to you for sharing our journey.

Sayonara