Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok last night! Staying at the Lamphu house.. http://www.lamphuhouse.com More reports to come after our explorations today. Had some delicious curry and lots of cold beer last night Our night on the town clubbing in the Pat Pong district of Bangkok at Spicy Bar. YUM!!! Our first meal in Bangkok - Thai curry!

Tokyo Finale

We managed to get out a bit on the early side on a gorgeously sunny and warm day. Dropped a few things off at the post office to make their slow return to the USA and then headed to the Azabu Jyuban area. Lots of shops and restaurants - Tom and Tomoko used to live in the neighborhood, so we stopped at one of their favorite Ramen shops for lunch. We all had a different flavor of ramen, and also a few dumplings - all very distinct in flavors and ingredients, and all so delicious! We stuffed ourselves silly...

Happy noodle slurping faces!

We walked over to the Roppongi Hills area - a fairly new and massive complex, full of shopping, business, housing - all very chic. We went to the top of one of the towers where there was an observation deck. Gorgeous views of the city. Above is the Tokyo Tower...

MOUNT FUJI!!!!!!!!!!

Lovely seating around the sky deck for gazing at the city, and on lucky clear days like ours the breathtaking and sacred Fuji-san.

For dinner, we found a great little shabu-shabu restaurant right in Tom and Tomoko's neighborhood. Such a fun experience, another unique cuisine to devour!

A display of most of the condiments available for our meal...

The premise of shabu-shabu is that you have a simmering pot of broth in the middle of the table, and then you are served a variety of meats and vegetables to dip and cook in the broth. Above is the Japanese beef - holy marbling!

They also served a chicken forcemeat that you slid off of these scoops into little meatball shapes. We also had a bevy of vegetables - enoki mushrooms, carrots, garlic chives, cabbages and tofu. There were an amazing number of courses. After cooking all the meats and veggies, we had noodles to cook in the broth, and then rice with egg. And then some funky pumpkin flan type dessert.

The gang on our last night together!!! Tomorrow it is off for Bangkok!!!

Visit to Keiko and Jo's House

Saturday was a fairly miserable pouring rain kind of day. Just downpoured all day long without respite. So, our motivation to leave the house was minimal... However, we had dinner plans to join Keiko and Jo at their apt in the Shinmaruko area, not far from where Tom and Tomoko live. They prepared quite the amazing feast!!! Keiko and Jo had prepared their traditional Japanese room, complete with tatami mats, as our dining area - low tables, candles, and their lovely fish tank as atmosphere! Dinner was fabulous!!! Lots of little dishes to start - edamame, tamago (omelet), spinach with miso, and a mix of walnuts with tiny fishes - a little sweet and salty.

Jo, Tomoko, Tom, Katie and Keiko at the dinner party.

Fun Time Friday Tokyo

Today's main agenda - a visit to Kappabashi-dori. This is the restaurant supply shopping district in Tokyo. Block after block of ceramic shops, cooking utensils, uniforms, furniture, knives and of course plastic food! I felt like a kid in a candy store...

We had lunch at an onomiyaki restaurant nearby. It had a great old and authentic atmosphere. The basic premise of the style of food they serve in this kind of restaurant is that you order a set of ingredients (for instance pork belly, cabbage, leeks, ginger) and they bring it to you in a bowl with some eggy batter in the bottom. You mix it all together and then griddle it right at your table. The pancakes get glazed with a thick sauce and then sprinkled with dry seaweed flakes. Delicious and fun!

On to our next meal....

We at a restaurant called Gonpachi. It was apparently Quentin Tarantino's inspiration for the restaurant scene in Kill Bill. It was definitely very fun and hip. The food was mostly grilled skewers - everything from stuffed shitakes to bacon wrapped tomatoes and duck with wasabi. We finished the meal off with these gorgeous grilled mackerel.

We had a super great time - 3 hours of eating, drinking and fun dining companions!

Next stop on our Friday night on the town - that's right, you guessed it - KARAOKE!!!

It was amazing! Turns out that Tom is a 'Gold Member' of the club in Shibuya that we went to (Shidax), so we got a room on the VIP level, and we didn't have to wait in the line...

Humm.....just where is Katie's other hand?

The experience was vastly different than the karaoke experience in the states...we had our own cushy room (with at least some sound proofing), there was a phone to order up round after round of drinks and a song book that was about 4 inches thick! We really rocked out, in fact they called several times to let us know that our time was up, but we kept asking to extend it!

Tokyo - On Our Own!

Today, Katie and I attacked the city like Gaijin Godzillas. It was a gorgeous day in Tokyo - sunny and warm. Perfect for a stroll through Kitanomaru Koen gardens, near where we were yesterday at the Imperial Palace. We successfully navigated the Tokyo subway systems and ambled through the streets. Sucky pig strikes again! This time at Yasukuni-jinja, or the Shrine for Establishing Peace in the Empire.

The shrine had some amazing steel Torii, stunning in fact. The shrine also had a nice display of flower arrangements, and the first western-style bronze statue in Japan (of an important warrior who inspired the shrine - of course I can't remember his name).

Thanks to Lonely Planet, we found a 'value' sushi restaurant for dinner in the Ginza area (again, we managed to navigate our way through the subway system to get there, with one quick 'oops, that WAS our stop'). At Hina Sushi, we had ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI, and even better, it was paired with ALL YOU CAN DRINK!!!! Super bonus...

We went to town ordering rounds and rounds of delicious fish! We had some sashimi to start, and then loaded up on everything from toro to suzuki, salmon, cod roe, shad and all sorts of white fish. They had a few spring specials as well. We took good advantage of the open bar and washed it all down with copious beers!

We strolled through the active Ginza shopping district after dinner to try and work off some of our sushi indulgence....quite the flashy and bustling area!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!!

Happy Birthday Katie

and

Happy Earth Day too!! We started our day hopping on the train to the Hibiya station in central Tokyo. Nice that the trains warned us to be careful of the crushing power of their doors.

We ambled around the moat surrounding the Imperial Palace - home to the Japanese emperor. Sucky pig makes his Tokyo debut, just inside the Imperial Palace garden.

The garden was gorgeous - azaleas in full bloom everywhere we turned. Alas the iris garden we had come to see was not quite blooming...

Just a smattering of the gorgeous garden and flower pictures from our stroll through the palace gardens. The bamboo shoots we have seen in every local produce market - fun to see them growing.

We enjoyed our serenity in the park most of the afternoon, and then headed back to Tomoko's apt to get ready for the big night out.

We went to one of Tom and Tomoko's favorite restaurants - Rainbow Roll Sushi

Definitely a fun place for the bday celebration! The restaurant was very hip - lots of different levels of dining areas, all with a very open layout.

This was the signature Rainbow Roll. I think there was some of everything inside!

A couple more examples of the amazing sushi rolls we enjoyed at dinner! We also had some yummy fried bamboo shoot, and a funky Italian flavored grain salad.

Keiko, Jo and Katie with happy post-meal faces!

The finale - sparklers in the birthday dessert!