Tokyo Trip Report October and November 2025

[Mr_Happy]

I went on a trip to Tokyo for about 10 days starting at the end of October. This was my second trip to Tokyo, but my first visit was over 20 years ago and it was on a tour bus where we only stayed in Tokyo for a brief stop. So for me this was really like a first visit.

After about a 10-11 hour flight from SFO to NRT, I took the Keisei Skyliner high speed train from the airport to Ueno where I was staying. I didn’t do much planning beforehand for this trip, and mostly looked for places on the English language version of Tabelog - the review site similar to Yelp but for Japan. It seems that the restaurant ratings on Tabelog are to be interpreted a bit different from that on Yelp in the USA, in which any restaurant under 4 stars can be a bit iffy. From what I’ve read anything above a 3 on the Tabelog is decent, and above 3.5 is very good to excellent.

Tonkatsu Yamabe Ueno Ten (とんかつ山家)

After checking in and depositing my luggage in my tiny yet efficient hotel room I headed out to Ueno to look for dinner. I ended up at Tonkatsu Yamabe Ueno Ten where there was a bit of a line up out front. They gave me an English language menu to peruse and took my order in advance a little bit later.

The inside is quite spare, with a wooden counter. It kind of looked like a sushi bar. You can see the chefs prepare the pork cutlets and other fried dishes like fish and shrimp from the bar. It looked like they had a streamlined system.

I didn’t get a picture of the brief menu, but I had a special tonkatsu set and a beer for ¥2000. There were free pickles and tea.

My tonkatsu arrived. This was a large pork cutlet, breaded and nicely fried, and still slightly pink in the middle. It was tender and porky and crispy on the outside. I drizzled some sweet tonkatsu sauce on top from a dispenser on the counter. There was cool shaved green cabbage, a very good miso soup that had a bunch of little clams in it, a large bowl of rice, and a dab of a very spicy horseradish like mustard that resembled Chinese mustard. This was a great start to my trip!

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131101/13162760/

[Mr_Happy]

China Soba Yamato Inari Cho Ten (支那そば大和)

The next day for lunch I had some ramen at a highly rated place I found within walking distance of my hotel, China Soba Yamato Inari Cho Ten.

There was an English menu outside.

Like many casual restaurants there is a vending-like machine in the front where you pay (usually with cash, sometimes they accept credit cards or other method - Alipay etc.) and order your food before sitting down. The machine spits out ticket(s) with your order, which you then hand over for them to prepare your order. I was having a little trouble with this one as it didn’t have any English on it, when a friendly restaurant worker helped me hit the right buttons.

The counter has dividers, great for introverts.

I had a whisky highball to drink.

I had a bowl of shiro ramen with chashu and two types of wontons - pork and shrimp. I think it was ¥1400. This was a delicious bowl. The broth was mostly clear and I think made of chicken and maybe a slightly smoky dashi? It had lots of flavor and was not too salty. The noodles were firm and thin, and both types of wontons were good. The chashu in the ramen was more like Cantonese char siu, with a neon red exterior. It was a bit like a Japanese take on wonton noodle soup.

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131101/13206756/

[Mr_Happy]

Tachigui Zushi Sado Benkei (立喰寿司 佐渡弁慶)

After a visit to Ueno Park and the Tokyo National Museum inside the park, which had an impressive special exhibit of recently restored Buddhist sculpures by Unkei, I had dinner inside Ueno station at a standing sushi bar - Tachigui Zushi Sado Benkei. Tachigui means “standing while eating” (thanks Google). It’s past the fare gates on the third floor of the station.

There’s a standing counter with a small standing table in the corner. You order through a tablet, which conveniently had an English option.

I was hungry after wandering around the National Museum and got a bunch of sushi. There’s a limit of 5 items per order at a time, but you can order as many times as you want. Once you put in an order a chef will start placing sushi on your plate to order.

Clockwise from top - uni / sea urchin, trio of tuna nigiri, iwashi / fatty sardine, aji / horse mackerel, hotate / raw scallop.

Seared nodoguro / blackthroat seaperch.

Ikura / salmon roe.

Clockwise from top - engawa / seared flounder fin with salt, aka-ebi / red shrimp cured with kelp, ankimo / monkfish liver, hamaguri / clam.

Clockwise from top - tamagoyaki / rolled omelet, sake / Sado salmon, shime saba / pickled mackerel.

Fatty tuna and pickle temaki / hand roll, tai / sea bream.

It was all very good sushi. All of this cost ¥7,008 with a couple of beers.

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131101/13308024/

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After dinner I took the metro down to Shinjuku and walked around for a bit before calling it a night. It was Halloween and it was raining.

[Mr_Happy]

Gottsu Akihabara Ten (ごっつ)

I had some tsukemen / dipping ramen at Gottsu Akihabara Ten for lunch.

The ticket machine had an English option.

There was an older machine in one corner along with crates of noodles, maybe the previous model?

I had the Special Tsukemen for ¥1,500. This was a very large bowl of thick-ish noodles, topped with a generous amount of chashu and a big pile of seasoned scallions, along with nori, menma, and a soft boiled egg.

The tsukemen was very satisfying. I’m not exactly sure what was in the dipping sauce but it was very rich with little chunks of pork fat. I think this was the miso option. The slices of chashu were nice and tender, and the scallions provided some crunch along with the menma.

Noodle closeup.

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1310/A131001/13145958/

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Fantastic post, @Mr_Happy! Makes me want to jump on a plane and go to Tokyo!!

[Phoenikia]

What an amazing trip, @Mr_Happy. You did well!

[Mr_Happy]

@klyeoh

Fantastic post, @Mr_Happy! Makes me want to jump on a plane and go to Tokyo!!

@Phoenikia

What an amazing trip, @Mr_Happy. You did well!

Thanks!

[Mr_Happy]

Torie Ueno Hiro Koji Ten (鳥恵)

For dinner I had made a last minute reservation via Tabelog to Torie Ueno Hiro Koji Ten, a yakitori / grilled chicken skewer restaurant in Ueno. I’d pre-booked their “Torie Course” set menu when making the reservation for ¥10,000.

Dinner started with an appetizer of tender chilled greens (maybe yu choy?) in a dashi.

I think this was sasami / chicken breast tender, just cooked and topped with wasabi. Quite good and tender.

Some pickled radish to eat with the skewers. They were a nice palate cleanser.

Next was furisode / chicken shoulder, very nice with a crisp skin. This is the meat between the breast and the wing (thanks Google). There was I think shiso leaf under the skin.

A chawanmushi / steamed egg custard, with mushrooms and ginko nuts. It was delicate and flavorful with a bit of citrus from a yuzu peel.

A kawa / chicken skin skewer next. Great! It was crispy and fatty.

Bread and chicken liver mousse, along with some dried fruit (jujubes?) was next. Very good - the bread was soft and the mousse was rich and creamy.

Grilled shiitake mushrooms. Tender and juicy.

At the grill station there was a jug of tare sauce that the chef would dip some skewers into after grilling.

I had a Rococo white beer, which was fizzy and light and great with the chicken.

Next, kimo / chicken livers, which were just cooked and tender and delicious.

And then seseri / chicken necks, which I don’t think I’ve had before. It was topped with a coarse grain mustard and was also just cooked and delicious.

A skewer of uzura / quail eggs followed. They were soft boiled with a runny yolk.

And a tsukune / ground chicken meatball.

This concluded the set menu before the “finishing” dish and dessert, and at this point we were asked if we wanted to add anything off of the menu beforehand. I chose the duck and the chicken oysters.

This was the kamo / duck, which was cooked about medium well and was quite good.

And the sorikura / chicken oysters, which were also quite good.

For the finishing dish we had a choice of a soboro donburi / ground chicken over rice, I think a soboro chazuke / like a soboro donburi with soup on top, or a chicken curry. I picked the soboro don.

The soboro don. Simple and delicious! There was a raw quail egg yolk that I mixed in with the rice and ground chicken. There was also a cup of a flavorful chicken broth to sip with the soboro don.

Finally green tea and a dessert of a custard like dish that tasted a bit like hojicha.

This was a very enjoyable meal with very friendly service.

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131101/13128870/

[linguafood (Natascha)]

My kind of meal. Just a bunch of skewers and other tasty stuff

[PedroPero]

Looks great! Did you use Google Maps to navigate around the city?

[Saregama]

I am craving yakitori now.

How did you like the chicken neck? (I have eaten it frequently as I grew up with whole chickens being cooked, not parts, but never as yakitori, so I’m mostly curious about method of eating)

[Mr_Happy]

@linguafood

My kind of meal. Just a bunch of skewers and other tasty stuff

I also love meat on a stick

@PedroPero

Looks great! Did you use Google Maps to navigate around the city?

Yes, Google Maps was very useful - especially with transit - it would even tell you which metro entrance (they are usually numbered) to use to enter/exit and the optimal car of the train to ride in for the quickest exit.

@Saregama

How did you like the chicken neck? (I have eaten it frequently as I grew up with whole chickens being cooked, not parts, but never as yakitori, so I’m mostly curious about method of eating)

I quite liked it - IIRC the texture of the meat part was a bit like thigh but maybe a little chewier. The skin wasn’t as crisped as some of the other skewers so it was a little juicy and gelatinous. The mustard was nice with it.

[Saregama]

Was it boneless?

[Mr_Happy]

Yep, no bones, easy to eat.

[Saregama]

Ah ok, not tricky at all (as opposed to bone-in).

[Mr_Happy]

I was curious and found a video on how it’s prepared, seems a bit labor intensive

[Saregama]

Yes, it’s a tiny amount of meat. When you eat it off the bone, there’s meat in between the joints too. Not a lot, but then it’s not a lot overall.

[Mr_Happy]

Unagi Sumiyaki Hitsumabushi Minokin Kanda Honten (鰻 炭焼 ひつまぶし 美濃金)

For lunch the next day, I made another last minute reservation to an unagi / freshwater eel restaurant near my hotel, Unagi Sumiyaki Hitsumabushi Minokin Kanda Honten.

I was seated at a counter, and there was a QR code with which to order. Minokin specializes in hitsumabushi, which is a dish of grilled eel over rice to be enjoyed several ways along with soup and other side dishes. I ordered the hitsumabushi, which came in various sizes, from 3/4 of a piece of eel all the way up to 2.5 pieces of eel if you’re really hungry. I chose the “special” size (¥6,950) which had 1.5 pieces of eel, and also upgraded my soup to eel liver soup (+¥380).

I had a glass of the recommended sake (¥1,480), which I didn’t get the name of but was quite nice.

Some cucumber and cabbage arrived.

I also added an Eel Liver mousse (¥1,980) as an appetizer, which was served with toast rounds and tasted like a chicken liver mousse.

Hitsumabushi set.

Closeup of the eel and rice.

Tamagoyaki / rolled egg omelet.

Eel with sweet pickled cucumber slices.

Eel soup. This was a nice clear soup with some spongy chewy white squares in it and an eel liver, which was a little chewy and tasted like liver.

Pickles.

Condiments - scallions, wasabi, rice cracker balls. There was also a packet of shredded nori.

There was a guide on how to enjoy the hitsumabushi in four ways after breaking up your rice and eel bowl into quadrants. First - unadorned eel on rice, second - with nori, wasabi, and scallions, third - covered with a hot dashi broth from a kettle and topped with rice cracker balls, and fourth - your favorite of the previous three ways.

Eel with rice alone, for the purists. The eel was really good - meaty with a complex sweet and savory sauce and was a little crispy at points. It had little bones that were easy to eat. The rice had soaked up some of the sauce.

Eel with rice and toppings - nori, wasabi, and scallions. This was fresh grated real wasabi rather than green colored horseradish - it added some wasabi flavor but wasn’t nostril clearing, quite nice.

Eel with rice and dashi, which I poured from the kettle. A bit like an ochazuke - the rice soaked up some of the broth and the arare / rice cracker balls provided a little crunch for a change in texture.

I liked the eel with rice and condiments the most so I prepared it that way with my fourth quadrant of eel and rice.

Green tea and a hard candy to finish.

This was a delicious eel lunch!

Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/A1311/A131101/13277621

Some non-food pics. After lunch I walked a bit around Akihabara which is just south of Ueno. They had closed off one of the streets to cars on Sunday.

And later I took the metro to visit the Meiji Shrine, which was in a serene forested area and quite a different feel from the bustle of the city.

Yoyogi Park is next to the Meiji Shrine. There was a group of pompadoured dancers rocking out to rockabilly music.