Tokyo Tuesday

Tomoko whisked us off to the Ginza area of Tokyo today. Ginza is full of posh shopping areas, lots of restaurants and businesses. We wandered the streets window shopping, all the while looking for an elusive ramen shop that Tomoko and Tom had visited previously. It was definitely worth the hunt - very nice hip atmosphere, reasonable prices and delicious soup! The restaurant conveniently provided full coverage bibs to prevent accidents resulting from excessive noodle slurpage. Good thing too - they were splatter central by the end of the meal!

This is an example of the Ginza area...

Mr & Mrs Sugiyama took us to Mr S's favorite Yakitori (chicken skewer) restaurant for dinner. Keiko and Jo joined as well. The meal was fantastic! The chicken was served skewer by skewer in courses, very nicely paced and I was very impressed by the variety of chicken parts that were represented - started with gizzards, barely cooked breast, glazed livers, quail eggs, thighs with japanese leeks, pope's nose (or parson's nose, as I learned it is called in Australia), wings (seen above - butterflied open, quite the ingenious preparation), a yummy forcemeat and finally skin bits. A bit of salad, pickles and rice soup to balance things out. Oh yeah, and quite a few Yebisu beers.

Tomoko, Katie, CJ, Keiko - midmeal before the yakitori coma set in.....