Complimentary welcome cocktails at our final hotel of this trip.
Manhattan up and a Negroni. Manhattan with Luxardo Cherry. Negroni chilling with a single hand carved Ice Sphere.
Japanese cocktail game is strong 
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Tsukiji Fish Market was at pre-pandemic mob scene this past Saturday. The queue for our favorite eatery on the outer ring simply not palatable.
The weekday scene yesterday was much calmer, but our restaurant had already run out of Uni at 2pm!! Not taking any chances, we woke early and were the first customers of today.
The two ladies seemed tickled by our unbridled enthusiasm and smilingly worked with us to fill our order.
For me, the Uni set, of course.
The wife had Uni and Tuna Scrape on Rice.
Half a grilled to order Chub Mackerel completed the perfect Tsukiji meal.
We fly home tomorrow, but enjoyed a few scattered early bird Sakura Blossoms.
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That all looks great but the grilled chub mackerel especially.
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That’s a decent amount of uni 
Looks great!
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A generous tray of Hokkaido Uni for 4,000¥, usd$29.40. Always look forward to eating here whenever in Tokyo.
Tsukiji Outer Market was already mobbed with the pre-weekend tourist rush today This little shop has only Japanese menu and the workers spoke only Japanese. Not quite foreign tourist friendly, but still gets overflow at peak times.
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Gorgeous cherry blossoms. I almost booked a trip for March 2020 so that I’d see the cherry blossoms, but fate intervened and I travelled to Japan in January 2020 instead. Hopefully, I’ll be able to visit in the spring some day.
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That is a fantastic price! I purveyor I have used out of Portland, Maine right now is selling 2 4oz. trays for $94, retail. And that’s the local stuff, not Hokkaido.
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Yakiniku Banya
+81 3-5461-8710
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1ifUkC54L2Md1acK6?g_st=ic
Wandering through Tokyo alleyways at night is exotic and exhilarating. Final dinner at Yakiniku Banya.
Opted for 2x Tsuki set @ $6,000¥/pp. The “all you can drink” option @ $1,590¥ a no-brainer, in more ways than one.
Yakiniku is Japanese BBQ, grilled at table over Bintochan Charcoal.
Starters of Bean Sprouts, KimChee and Green Salad to complement the mains to come.
A bit of Wagyu stewed with Daikon.
A melange of Beef Tongue, Black Pig Toro, Skirt and a couple of good sized Shrimp.
Two types of Hormon: Intestine and Tendon.
The centerpiece of the meal, three different cuts of A5. Three seconds each side on the grill. Melt in mouth. Repeat.
We may have taken the “all you can drink” too literally. Started with HighBalls. Followed by Red Wine. Then ran through the Shochu selection. $1,590¥ well spent.
Ordered some Vegetables to finish our final dinner. Already planning a return trip!!
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Looks absolutely wonderful! Safe travels and thanks for your fantastically mouth-watering posts!!
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Love sharing with like minded people. Will be fun to look back in the future and savor this meal all over again.
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That’s the only way B and I found anything to eat when we visited Tokyo. Hell if we could find anything by address. Neither could the friendly locals/police who tried to help us locate specific restaurants.
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Damn, that’s some good eating.
Good for you!
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Those little clams are called asari, in case you liked them.
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It’s fun to maraud a Japanese supermarket an hour before closing.
A hint for your next visit: go to a tourist office in Tokyo station, Ginza, or Nihombashi (both also in Tokyo). Ask for a map of antenna shops/アンテナショップ.
Antenna shops are a feast throughout Japan’s prefectures, when you don’t have enough time to visit most of them. In other words, Hokkaido, Okinawa, and many other prefectures have a food store in Japan’s largest cities; naturally, Tokyo has the most.
Supermarkets of course do have products from around the country, but the antenna shops dig particularly deep.
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Google Gourmet, if you have a minute, could you clue me in to what I might have been doing wrong when I went to a ramen restaurant that used a machine similar to Ichiran earlier this year. I tried to put in the money and choose the dish but I could not get the machine to work after the choice part. It looks like you are supposed to do steps 1, 2, 3 and 4 so I put the money in, chose a regular bowl of ramen and tried to get the receipt or the ticket and could not get either to work. There was a line behind me so I got my money back and left since there was no one to help. I am going back next week and want to try again but am not sure what I did wrong other than trying it for the first time when there was a line. LOL!
I am going to try to find a Youtube video but thought maybe you could recommend a Tokyo ramen shop that uses the machine that I could try at for my first re-try later this week. I may try Ichiran Shimbashi, the single tables with the liftup screen looks similar to a place I used to go to in Manhattan.
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And after watching a couple Ramen ordering videos, I have no idea what I did wrong…
Oh well, I think I will just give it another try but at an off time so there is not line of hungry folks behind me. I hate asking for help or being clueless but Ramen is worth it.
I learned the words for thick broth, Koime, and for firm noodles, Katame, from the first video, so I will write them down. Now I just have to find the word for beer and write that down as well.
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Pressure is on!! 
Don’t wanna be that gaijin that holds up the queue!!!
Ticket vending machine from the very first Ichiran, located in Fukuoka-Hakata. Even has English option button.
- Insert cash or credit card. Once sufficient funds are registered, the items will light up.
- Choose your item and press “pay” for your order ticket. You can do this for each individual item. Better to “pay” after you pick all your items, so you won’t have to keep re-inputing payment.
- Press “print receipt” if you wish to have a receipt for this transaction.
My order, and preference sheet. As in many Japan restaurants, there is a call button. Call the server to take your order ticket, and add more food/drink as needed.
NO waiting time!!! This was just before 7am in the morning, less than 12 hours after noodling at Ippudo Ramen. Ippudo stores order either by printed menu, table tablet or ticket vender.
On this trip, we ate at over a dozen ramen, soba, udon and champon shops. That said, we always eat at Ichiran and Ippudo at least once per trip.
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Beer is easy. Ask for Biru kudasai (sounds like beer ru). Asahi, Ka-Lin (Kirin) and Sapporo is easy to say.
We’ve taken to drinking Hi-balls when we visit. A tad less filling, so we can eat more.
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