Blogger Ben: One Month

Posted on | October 18, 2010 | No Comments

A month ago, I arrived in Tokyo not knowing what to expect. A month later, I am happy to report that I am living happily and frugally in a city that can literally eat you alive. My Japanese has not improved much but I can say that I understand more than I first arrived. Baby steps, right?

I celebrated my 1 month anniversary with a trip with my good friend and guide to Kappabashi, better known as the restaurant supply district near Ueno and within visible range of the nearly complete Tokyo Sky Phallus...err...Tree. It really does look like a longer, thicker version of the CN Tower in Toronto. The district is a lot of fun, if you enjoy cooking, which I do. You can literally find any cooking tool you can imagine, including wax food models commonly seen on display windows in restaurants all over the city and beyond. The pictures speak for themselves:

The main intersection leading to Kappabashi

Store selling an assortment of cookware

Knife store! I cut you!

Plastic food so real you'd want to eat it!

All that food made us hungry and we headed over to Shimbashi for some salary-man yaki niku. This was no typical yaki-niku restaurant. It is a traditional Robatayaki, which I found through an article on CNN. The restaurant is called Musashi Robatayaki within a stones throw from JR Shimbashi station. Almost everything on the menu is 290 Yen save for the drinks. Some drinks are pricier like the higher quality sake made with Yamada Nishiki rice. It's a lot of fun if you can sit by the fireplace and randomlly call out food items. It helps to know how to read kana and some kanji of course, but fortunately the restaurant has an English menu that you can ask for. We didn't ask for one though, because we're hardcore like that. Specials are all posted on the wall, so again it helps to know how to read kana. The sashimi moriawase (mixed sashimi platter) for 1050 Yen is a good deal. It's not on the standard menu but it is posted on the wall. There's also horse sashimi (basashi) and yes, WHALE! Crazy! Sorry no photo of those, nor did we order WHALE.

Hitting up the backstreets of Shimbashi....where the salary men roam...even though it was Saturday!