Jean’s Visit (visitor #3)

Jean stopped by Tokyo on her way back to SF from Beijing.  When Jean arrived Henry took her to one of Muji’s flagship stores in Tokyo to look at the current Muji designed items – from clothing to housewares and more.  Then, we met up with one of Jane’s friends and a couple of her friends for some sushi in Tsukiji.  Yum! Henry and Jean checked out more designy places on Friday – including the Prada store in Omotesando and Omotesando Hills, as well as the Design Center Tokyo.  We all met in Roppongi to go to a kushi-ya for some grilled food on skewers goodness as well as okonomiyake.  

Saturday after a tonkatsu lunch, we headed to the Meguro River as we had heard there were hundreds of cherry trees by the river.  Indeed, the river had a lot of potential for sakura (cherry blossom) viewing and some trees were quite lovely.  Unfortunately, most of the trees were only 10-20% opened but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the artsy neighborhood with plenty of cafes and shops as well as a few temporary stands serving sake and beer for the ohanami (cherry blossom viewing parties) crowds to come.  

Next, we headed to Ginza to see one of Jean’s fiance’s family friends who owns an art gallery in the area.  After chatting for a bit, we were invited to yakitori later that evening.  We wandered around Ginza, spending most of our time at the huge toy store in Ginza where we discovered all sorts of Japanese toys and games.  

By the time, we met up with Jean’s fiance’s family friend again, we were pretty hungry.  We went to a very old, very atmospheric motsu yaki place underneath the train tracks near Shimbashi station.  It was awesome.  The type of place you would expect to see salarymen at all hours of the night eating and drinking before heading home.  Apparently, yakitori was not enough for dinner because we stopped at a sushi place for some more yummy sushi.  The next day, we met with Jane’s friend for lunch and shopping.  The highlight of lunch was dessert!  Strawberry and ice cream covered honey toast…and when I say toast, it was more like a toasted loaf of bread…not just a slice!  

We headed to another artsy neighborhood just west of Shibuya – Shimokitazawa – for some shopping.  Finally, we went to Shinjuku to meet up with Jean’s fiance’s family friend for more shopping and a soba dinner.  The dinner was awesome, fresh sashimi, a spring course of different items, tempura, and of course, fresh handmade cold soba noodles and dessert that included soba ice cream (much better than it sounds).  Henry and I have found out that we really like soba in Japan , it tastes so much better than the soba we’ve had in the US .  Unfortunately, Jean’s flight left Monday but Jean and I did have time to stop by Tokyu Hands for some browsing as well as a ramen lunch before her departure.  I hope she enjoyed Tokyo as much as we enjoyed seeing her.  Next time she comes back, she’ll have to bring Jeff.