Hello friends! Welcome to post number san (three)! It’s been a while since my last post because I have been very busy with my first visitor. Kate landed at 7am on Friday 14th February and with her she brought a massive bar of Dairy Milk, which sits untouched in my drawer right now.

Being the hard worker that I am (and also because I was planning to take the following five days off work), I woke up at 5:45am on Friday morning so I could squeeze in 3 lessons before meeting Kate at Koenji station. My first two students were no-shows so this early morning actually turned out to be unnecessary but it gave me a bit of time in the break room to enjoy the perks of Japanese Valentine’s Day. Basically everyone in Japan gives chocolate to all their friends on Valentine’s Day, which was great because lots of people brought in chocolate and cake on Friday morning and so whilst I was sitting in the break room from 6:30-8:30am, I was able to fill up nicely before most of the other teachers even began the working day.

At 9:30am, I had finished my day of work and met Kate at the station. We came back to my flat and had my new invention of Japanese scrambled eggs. This is an unofficial recipe but in case any readers at home would like to recreate, this is my new specialité: butter, chopped up spring onions, chopped up cherry tomatoes, small shiitake mushrooms all fried then add eggs and scramble! Basically what makes the Japanese scrambled eggs is the Japanese fat bread that I serve it on. I accidentally bought what I thought was regular sliced white bread but it was actually 3x the thickness and super fluffy and amazing. So anyway Kate and I enjoyed this delicious breakfast and headed out for our first day of fun together in Tokyo.

Number one on the agenda was the Toyosu fish market. The famous Tokyo fish market was relocated here in 2018 so we thought that this would be a great place to eat some fresh fish but we were very underwhelmed. Firstly, it took us bloody ages to get there and it was very bare and clinical and cold and not a very enjoyable experience. Apparently it’s good to go for the 4am tuna auction but seeing as this wasn’t taking place whilst we were walking around, we didn’t really see much apart from cold and quite empty warehouses from a viewing deck above. We didn’t take any pictures, sorry.

Anyway moving swiftly onwards, we met another friend Akira nearby at the teamLab borderless exhibition. This is an interactive light exhibition, which we spent a few hours in. It’s hard to explain so here are some pics.

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We were then very hungry because it was around 5pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we got on a train back into the centre of Tokyo where we each ate a very delicious bowl of ramen at a restaurant in Ebisu called Afuri. By the time we were done eating, we strolled along the river into Shibuya, the very centre of Tokyo. As we walked, we stopped off for some tinnies at 7-eleven. In Japan, they have the most delicious alcoholic drink, which tastes just like San Pellegrino lemonade but somehow gets you tipsy after just one can, so we loaded up on a few of these and by the time we arrived in Shibuya, Kate and I were both a little bit drunk. Akira wasn’t though because he is quite responsible and doesn’t drink.

We went up to a Starbucks so Kate could get a good GoPro video of the famous Shibuya Crossing (referenced in Chapter 1) then we ran around a few department stores feeling a bit tipsy and ended up at a rooftop bar. Then drinks were quite expensive so we didn’t stay very long here and then we went to Purikura No Mecca. Purikura is a type of cute Japanese photo booth and Purikura No Mecca in Shibuya is the HQ for this. The room is filled with photo booths and so we had a lot of fun taking, editing and printing the end result. Afterwards, we went to the Golden Gai bars in Shinjuku for a few more drinks and then got the last train home just after midnight. Suffice to say that we slept very well after our long and exhausting Valentine’s Day.

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Saturday morning we were up bright and early (10am) and we headed to Shimo-kitazawa, which is a very trendy neighbourhood of Tokyo. Shimo-kita (as the locals, myself included, call it) is famous for its curries and vintage shops, two things that we tried out on Saturday morning. We kick-started the morning with some fluffy Japanese soufflé-style pancakes, which oh my god were the most delicious and filling things ever. We both ordered “plain”, which came with a mascarpone style topping but you can get a whole load of extra toppings for a bit more money so I will definitely be taking my next visitors there as well. Then we had a wander around the vintage shops and worked our appetites up for a chicken katsu curry lunch.

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Next we took the train to Asakusa, home of the famous Senso-ji temple. I showed Kate how to pray and so we did a little prayer and got matcha ice creams. We then walked around the food markets, which looked amazing and I will definitely be returning because we had already eaten two huge meals by this point in the day and so we couldn’t make the most of everything on offer. We walked from Asakusa to Ueno, where we walked through the Ameyayokocho market, which is a huge market selling clothes and food and other knick-knacks. We also went in search of some plum blossoms at a nearby temple before getting the train home.

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Saturday night’s dinner was composed of discount gourmet sushi from the supermarket and some chocolate biscuits. We sat on my floor with our sushi boxes and warmed up gyozas and tempura prawn and watched Notting Hill – a perfect evening!

On Sunday morning we headed to Ginza, the glitzy shopping area of Tokyo, which is full of designer brands and expensive shops. We walked around the Dover Street Market Ginza, which is a department store full of ridiculously expensive designer clothes and afterwards we went to a 9-floor stationery shop, which was more within our budget. Eventually we made our way over to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This was the original Tokyo Fish Market, which is the famous one that everyone’s heard of. The indoor part is mostly closed now but the outdoor section remains open to the public and in our opinion this fish market was much better than the Toyosu one. This was probably because it was more along the lines of what we were expecting when we went to Toyosu on Friday. We walked around for a while before sampling some very fresh bluefin tuna. Below is a picture of me enjoying said bluefin tuna whilst posing with its corpse.

Sunday lunch was a typical conveyor belt sushi restaurant in a neighbourhood called Takadanobaba, which is where a friend of ours from school lives. We ate some sushi and then met up with this friend, Alba, who has been living in Tokyo for a year and a half but she is unfortunately about to leave. Alba lives in ‘Baba’ and so we met her at a nearby matcha shop and drank some matcha lattes, which are so delicious OMG. Since drinking this latte I have become a bit obsessed with matcha and I am so excited to make everyone matcha lattes all the time when I come home because they are so nice. Also Alba very kindly gave me a double down duvet that she doesn’t want to take home with her when she leaves Tokyo plus a pillow. Kate and I had been sharing my very flimsy pillow so this was great news. We took the pillow and duvet home on the train that evening before heading out once again for karaoke!

In Tokyo, there are karaoke bars pretty much everywhere. Just in Koenji alone, there are loads to choose from, so we didn’t have to walk more than 10 minutes from my house to a karaoke bar where we met up with Akira again and spent two hours in a booth having the best time. We really worked up our appetites and so we went for a late night bowl of ramen when we came out.

On Monday morning, we woke up early to begin our post-weekend weekend trip to Hakone, which is about 2 hours outside of Tokyo. I’m getting a bit tired so I’m going to wrap it up here and save the Hakone content for next week’s chapter!

Stay tuned! Also as I write this, Jack’s Flight Club have released some very attractive direct flights to Japan for Dec/Jan 2021 so if anyone fancies New Year’s Eve in Tokyo, let me know!