Eating Tokyo

Tokyo was the last stop on our amazing trip. We had around 5 days in this incredible city with a population of 37 million. It was beautiful, vibrant, MASSIVE, quirky. I can absolutely understand the reason Tokyo has become such a bucket list spot.

I think you could spend 3 months in Tokyo and not see all that you wanted to.  We certainly saw some amazing things, albeit briefly. And unfortunately Tokyo is when after being on the go, that exhaustion caught up and I inevitably got sick. That aside, I forged though and still have incredible memories.

Shinjuku Gyoen is the Central Park of Tokyo and was one of my must sees! It was very close to our hotel and I ended up going twice. 

It was an incredible garden and was a little piece of calm in the middle of the city.

I couldn't resist when I saw this adorable food truck.

It was not cheap at AUD 13 but my goodness it was delicious. A really tasty hot dog on a perfect bread roll with pickled veg which are produced in the garden itself. Very fresh, very delicious and the vendor was really lovely and friendly. 

On our other visit, I stopped in at Tsubura, a cafe in the gardens. They offered a small selection of bentos, sweets, hot and cold drinks and I had a gyodon and home made lemonade slushy while dad had a latte. 

Really sweet presentation, and a nice morning tea. Around AUD25 for the bento, drink and coffee.

A month before we departed I had the most stressful time acquiring tickets to the Ghibli Museum. Logging on at 10am on the dot as told to, I was put into a queue where I was 4099th in line. Tickets are only $10 per person, but are very limited and very coveted. The museum was tiny but very lovely, and absolutely worth the trouble. We wouldn't have journeyed out to Mitaka if we hadn't had tickets and wouldn't have discovered the beautiful Inokashira Park, which was utterly Ghibli in itself. (photography is not allowed inside the museum)

While at the park we stopped for a beer at Italian Restaurant Isentai and decided to share one of the woodfired pizzas. It was beautiful as well as incredibly tasty.

This was the house special and had a base of mascarpone and fresh cream and was topped with prosciutto, rocket, honey and edible flowers.

On one of our last days, I was feeling particularly poorly, but I said to dad I wanted to venture out but I didn't want to do any of the thinking or planning, I just wanted to be lead around. Bless him he did such a wonderful job. 

He knew I wanted to see some seaside and he knew I found the subway and metro incredibly stressful, so se booked us tickets on the open top bus (we had previously open top bussed and ADORED it) and chose the route that would take us portside to Odaiba. 

It was a beautiful out-of-the-way spot that we assume is where Tokyoites spend their weekends and holidays. It was a perfect day and the beach was speakling blue and clean as anything and no hussle and bustle.

We stopped in at a cafe, Sea Side Cafe Solaris that had a decidedly Hawaiian feeling to it for coffee, I also had a cream cheese pretzel which has that perfect sweet and salty combo going on.

We wandered around the area for an hour or two before hopping on the bus back to Ginza. We drove past the Tsukiji Market which resembled a heaving mass of bodies and took a raincheck before finding a bite to eat at the cutest restaurant we'd passed, Il Barocco.

We were lucky to get a seat as it was getting towards the end of lunch time on a Saturday. Inside felt like a traditional Italian Trattoria, not a tourist in sight and smells of deliciousness thick in the air.

I started with a blood orange mimosa and dad a beer with our garlic prawns and house made focaccia (to dip). They were INCREDIBLE.

Our other entree was slow cooked pork shoulder served with mushrooms which was also gorgeous.

Mains were spaghetti marinara and pizza el fungi.

The pizza was very nice, but the star was the spagetti. It had perfect flavour that was in no way overbearing. The seafood was fresh and cooked perfectly and these two actually complimented each other perfectly.

And this place we chose at least partially for the outside of the restaurant.

Cheap and cheerful Chinese! My sweet and sour pork was perfect and I could have eaten two or maybe even three serves. 

Check out dad's plate, actually it was the size of a platter! With fried rice that dad said was superb, fried chicken and gyoza.

This is the final of the Japan series. I feel so lucky to have been invited to join my father on this trip of a lifetime. My dad is the perfect travel partner. I admire his calm in stressful situations, his never-ending youthful adventurousness and his open and empathetic understanding of those around him.

Love you, Papa.