It took longer to get to the hotel than I expected. I thought I would have a half day on Saturday to explore, but didn't really happen. I took a bus from Narita airport to the New Otani Hotel in Akasaka.
It was dark by the time I settled into my room, so I just ate dinner at the hotel. The hotel was huge and had the feel of resorts, like we will provide all you need, food, drink, shops, dress rental for weddings, etc. so that you don't need to spend your money some place else. Hotels are usually expensive, but I felt the prices at the restaurants were even higher than usual.
Once I found the restaurants within close walking distance, I didn't eat at the hotel any more.
On Sunday, late morning, two of the employees from the office took me site seeing. There was a typhoon in the area, so it was pouring rain all the day.
We had lunch at a sushi place near work that they liked a lot and didn't get to go to often because it was usually crowded and would take too long. On a Sunday it wasn't crowded at all. The sushi was excellent! I ended up going back on my last day in Tokyo.
We first went to Senso-ji temple in Asakusa, taking the subway to get there.
The next stop was the sky tree. It is a mall with a tall structure that you can go up and get a nice view of the city. Unfortunately the top was covered by clouds, so we decided not to go up.
I mentioned that I would like to visit a cat cafe and they found one nearby that we could go to. It was about $8 for 1 hour, they didn't actually have tables to have coffee, but they did have a small fridge that you could buy cold drinks if you wanted. It was a small room with almost 20 cats. It was early afternoon so they were all sleeping but we were still able to pet them.
LUNCH
The work week started and spent much of my time in the office. I was taken to lunch each day by my colleagues.
One day we went to a curry restaurant which they had nicknamed the cat cafe because there is a cat in the restaurant. The curry was not the Indian curry I am used to , but it was still good.
The last day we went to a place that was started by a famous member of the kabuki theatre. It was a really nice place with a special Bento box meal at lunch.
EVENINGS
Monday night I took the metro to Shibuya crossing. It was only a few stops away.
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| Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Japan |
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| Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo Japan from the Shibuya Station |
I then had dinner closer to the hotel in Akasaka: Itamae. It was a reasonably priced sushi place recommended to me by my colleagues. I later found out that they have a special high quality tuna meal that they only have enough for 30 servings per day, that is what they are known for.
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| Itamae Sushi, Akasaka Tokyo Japan |
One evening they took me to the Ninja restaurant. it was fun to go with a group. A little gimicky but still fun. All of the staff are dressed as Ninjas and they take you to your table via a maze that the Ninja has to use magic to open certain doors and bridges. The food also has a Ninja theme to it, as you will see.
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| Clockwise from left: Akihiro?, Ayume?, Ayoko, me, Casey, Kimiko, Yasuaki |
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| Ninja sake in a bamboo bottle. |
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| Ninja star crackers. |
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| Pate in the shape of a Ninja star. |
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| Tofu in the shape of a noodle pastry. |
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| Chicken wings with cashews and extremely hot peppers. Peppers were for decoration only. |
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| Stone soup, they used a hot stone to heat up the broth and ingredients. |
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| Cold capellini pasta. |
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| Pork with a sweet glaze. |
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| Chinese pudding. With a gummy candy like food in the middle. It was made from seaweed and had a great texture that was smoother than gummy bears I am used to. |
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| Momento from the magic show at the end of the meal. |
Another evening, Casey and I went to a cheap fast food place for noodles.
For my last meal, which was lunch on Saturday, I went back to the Sushi place they took me the first day. It was a fine last meal to have in Tokyo.
I was able to fulfill my goal of having sushi everyday! It may not have been the main meal each time, but even the bento boxes had at least one piece of sushi.
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